Category Archives: Quantum Computing

In the fall of 2019, Google told the world it had reached quantum supremacy.

It was a significant scientific milestone that some compared to the first flight at Kitty Hawk. Harnessing the mysterious powers of quantum mechanics, Google had built a computer that needed only three minutes and 20 seconds to perform a calculation that normal computers couldnt complete in 10,000 years.

But more than two years after Googles announcement, the world is still waiting for a quantum computer that actually does something useful. And it will most likely wait much longer. The world is also waiting for self-driving cars, flying cars, advanced artificial intelligence and brain implants that will let you control your computing devices using nothing but your thoughts.

Silicon Valleys hype machine has long been accused of churning ahead of reality. But in recent years, the tech industrys critics have noticed that its biggest promises the ideas that really could change the world seem further and further on the horizon. The great wealth generated by the industry in recent years has generally been thanks to ideas, like the iPhone and mobile apps, that arrived years ago.

Have the big thinkers of tech lost their mojo?

The answer, those big thinkers are quick to respond, is absolutely not. But the projects they are tackling are far more difficult than building a new app or disrupting another aging industry. And if you look around, the tools that have helped you cope with almost two years of a pandemic the home computers, the videoconferencing services and Wi-Fi, even the technology that aided researchers in the development of vaccines have shown the industry hasnt exactly lost a step.

Imagine the economic impact of the pandemic had there not been the infrastructure the hardware and the software that allowed so many white-collar workers to work from home and so many other parts of the economy to be conducted in a digitally mediated way, said Margaret OMara, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in the history of Silicon Valley.

As for the next big thing, the big thinkers say, give it time. Take quantum computing. Jake Taylor, who oversaw quantum computing efforts for the White House and is now chief science officer at the quantum start-up Riverlane, said building a quantum computer might be the most difficult task ever undertaken. This is a machine that defies the physics of everyday life.

A quantum computer relies on the strange ways that some objects behave at the subatomic level or when exposed to extreme cold, like metal chilled to nearly 460 degrees below zero. If scientists merely try to read information from these quantum systems, they tend to break.

While building a quantum computer, Dr. Taylor said, you are constantly working against the fundamental tendency of nature.

The most important tech advances of the past few decades the microchip, the internet, the mouse-driven computer, the smartphone were not defying physics. And they were allowed to gestate for years, even decades, inside government agencies and corporate research labs before ultimately reaching mass adoption.

The age of mobile and cloud computing has created so many new business opportunities, Dr. OMara said. But now there are trickier problems.

Still, the loudest voices in Silicon Valley often discuss those trickier problems as if they were just another smartphone app. That can inflate expectations.

People who arent experts who understand the challenges may have been misled by the hype, said Raquel Urtasun, a University of Toronto professor who helped oversee the development of self-driving cars at Uber and is now chief executive of the self-driving start-up Waabi.

Technologies like self-driving cars and artificial intelligence do not face the same physical obstacles as quantum computing. But just as researchers do not yet know how to build a viable quantum computer, they do not yet know how to design a car that can safely drive itself in any situation or a machine that can do anything the human brain can do.

Even a technology like augmented reality eyeglasses that can layer digital images onto what you see in the real world will require years of additional research and engineering before it is perfected.

Andrew Bosworth, vice president at Meta, formerly Facebook, said that building these lightweight eyeglasses was akin to creating the first mouse-driven personal computers in the 1970s (the mouse itself was invented in 1964). Companies like Meta must design an entirely new way of using computers, before stuffing all its pieces into a tiny package.

Over the past two decades, companies like Facebook have built and deployed new technologies at a speed that never seemed possible before. But as Mr. Bosworth said, these were predominantly software technologies built solely with bits pieces of digital information.

Building new kinds of hardware working with physical atoms is a far more difficult task. As an industry, we have almost forgotten what this is like, Mr. Bosworth said, calling the creation of augmented reality glasses a once-in-a-lifetime project.

Technologists like Mr. Bosworth believe they will eventually overcome those obstacles and they are more open about how difficult it will be. But thats not always the case. And when an industry has seeped into every part of daily life, it can be hard to separate hand-waving from realism especially when it is huge companies like Google and well-known personalities like Elon Musk drawing that attention.

Many in Silicon Valley believe that hand-waving is an important part of pushing technologies into the mainstream. The hype helps attract the money and the talent and the belief needed to build the technology.

If the outcome is desirable and it is technically possible then its OK if were off by three years or five years or whatever, said Aaron Levie, chief executive of the Silicon Valley company Box. You want entrepreneurs to be optimistic to have a little bit of that Steve Jobs reality-distortion field, which helped to persuade people to buy into his big ideas.

The hype is also a way for entrepreneurs to generate interest among the public. Even if new technologies can be built, there is no guarantee that people and businesses will want them and adopt them and pay for them. They need coaxing. And maybe more patience than most people inside and outside the tech industry will admit.

When we hear about a new technology, it takes less than 10 minutes for our brains to imagine what it can do. We instantly compress all of the compounding infrastructure and innovation needed to get to that point, Mr. Levie said. That is the cognitive dissonance we are dealing with.

Read the original post:
Why Is Silicon Valley Still Waiting for the Next Big Thing? - The New York Times

Atom Computing

Atom Computing, a quantum computing company headquartered in Berkeley, California, seems to be on the fast track for funding.

This week Atom announced it had secured$60MSeries B round of financing led by Third Point Ventures. The round also included Prime Movers Lab and insiders Innovation Endeavors, Venrock, and Prelude Ventures.

Atom was founded in 2018 with $5M in seed funds by Benjamin Bloom and Jonathan King. Over two years, the duo used those funds to secretly staff and build a quantum computer with a unique technology. What set Atoms computer apart from other quantum machines was that it was the first quantum computer to use nuclear-spin qubits created from optically-trapped neutral atoms.

First-Generation Quantum Computer, Phoenix

In July 2021, Atom Computingreceived an additional $15M in Series A funding from investorsVenrock, Innovation Endeavors, and Prelude Ventures, plus three grants from the National Science Foundation.

According to a statement on Atom's press release by Rob Hays, Atom Computing's president and CEO, there was no shortage of investment interest. "We've seen a tremendous amount ofinvestor interest in what many are starting to believe is a more promising way to scale quantum computers neutral atoms, he said. Our technology advancements and this investment give us the runway to continue our focus on delivering the most scalable and reliable quantum computers."

Whats different about its technology

Most of todays quantum computers use two types of qubits, either superconducting (IBM & Google) or trapped-ion (Quantinum or IonQ). Amazon doesnt yet have a quantum computer, but it plans to build one using superconducting hardware. In contrast, Psi Quantum and Xanadu use photons of light that act as qubits.

Atom computing chose to use a different technology -nuclear-spin qubits made from neutral atoms.Phoenix, the name of Atoms first-generation, gate-based quantum computer platform, uses 100 optically trapped qubits.

These qubits are created from an isotope of Strontium, a naturally occurring element considered to be a neutral atom. Goingdeeper, neutral atoms have equal numbers of protons and electrons. However, isotopes of Strontium have varying numbers of neutrons. These differences in neutrons produce different energy levels in the atom that allow spin qubits to be created. Atom Computing uses the isotope Strontium-87 and takes advantage of its unique energy levels to create spin qubits.

It is important for qubits to remain in a quantum state long enough to complete running the quantum circuits. The time that a qubit retains its quantum state is called its coherence time. Neutral atom qubits have a longer coherence time than most other qubit technologies.

Lasers instead of wires are used for precision control of the strontium-87 qubits. Lasers eliminates wiring, which can create radiation and noise that negatively affects coherence.

There are many other technical reasons for using neutral atom spin qubits but beyond the scope of this article.

Second generation plans

Artist rendering of Atom Computings second-generation quantum

With its latest $60M Series B funding, Atom Computing plans to build a larger, second-generation neutral-atom quantum computer. Many additional qubits will give the system increased computational ability. Atom Computing is currently likely to have undisclosed customer trials and use cases in progress. However, we expect new and more significant use cases to be publicly announced once the new quantum system is operational.

Patrick Moorhead, president and chief analyst of Moor Insights and Strategy, said, Qubit coherence, fidelity, and scalability are essential factors for achieving quantum advantage. Atom Computing has already demonstrated that Phoenix, its first-generation 100+ nuclear-spin qubit quantum processor, has the potential to check all those boxes. With the additional $60M Series B funding, I believe Atom could build a large qubit, second-generation quantum system that either brings it to the edge of quantum advantage or possibly even achieves it.

Analyst notes:

Note: Moor Insights & Strategy writers and editors may have contributed to this article.

Moor Insights & Strategy, like all research and tech industry analyst firms, provides or has provided paid services to technology companies. These services include research, analysis, advising, consulting, benchmarking, acquisition matchmaking, or speaking sponsorships. The company has had or currently has paid business relationships with 88,A10 Networks,Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon,Ambient Scientific,AnutaNetworks,Applied Micro,Apstra,Arm, Aruba Networks (now HPE), AT&T, AWS, A-10 Strategies,Bitfusion, Blaize, Box, Broadcom, Calix, Cisco Systems, Clear Software, Cloudera,Clumio, Cognitive Systems, CompuCom,CyberArk,Dell, Dell EMC, Dell Technologies, Diablo Technologies,Dialogue Group,Digital Optics,DreamiumLabs, Echelon, Ericsson, Extreme Networks, Flex, Foxconn, Frame (now VMware), Fujitsu, Gen Z Consortium, Glue Networks, GlobalFoundries, Revolve (now Google), Google Cloud,Graphcore,Groq,Hiregenics,HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Honeywell, Huawei Technologies, IBM,IonVR,Inseego, Infosys,Infiot,Intel, Interdigital, Jabil Circuit, Konica Minolta, Lattice Semiconductor, Lenovo,Linux Foundation,Luminar,MapBox, Marvell Technology,Mavenir, Marseille Inc, Mayfair Equity, Meraki (Cisco),Mesophere, Microsoft, Mojo Networks, National Instruments, NetApp, Nightwatch, NOKIA (Alcatel-Lucent), Nortek,Novumind, NVIDIA,Nutanix,Nuvia (now Qualcomm), ON Semiconductor, ONUG, OpenStack Foundation, Oracle, Panasas,Peraso, Pexip, Pixelworks, Plume Design, Poly (formerly Plantronics),Portworx, Pure Storage, Qualcomm, Rackspace, Rambus,RayvoltE-Bikes, Red Hat,Residio, Samsung Electronics, SAP, SAS, Scale Computing, Schneider Electric, Silver Peak (now Aruba-HPE), SONY Optical Storage,Springpath(now Cisco), Spirent, Splunk, Sprint (now T-Mobile), Stratus Technologies, Symantec, Synaptics, Syniverse, Synopsys, Tanium, TE Connectivity,TensTorrent,TobiiTechnology, T-Mobile, Twitter, Unity Technologies, UiPath, Verizon Communications,Vidyo, VMware, Wave Computing,Wellsmith, Xilinx,Zayo,Zebra,Zededa, Zoho, andZscaler.Moor Insights & Strategy founder, CEO, and Chief Analyst Patrick Moorhead is a personal investor in technology companiesdMYTechnology Group Inc. VI andDreamiumLabs.

Follow this link:
Atom Computing Plans To Build A Bigger And Better High-Tech Quantum Computer With Its Latest $60 Million Series B Funding - Forbes

Cambridge-based quantum engineering company Riverlane is at the heart of two related initiatives to troubleshoot problems and advance risk-free adoption worldwide.

It has head-hunted leading scientist Dr Earl Campbell to accelerate efforts to solve quantum error correction and only last month joined an influential consortium to build error corrected quantum processor.

As head of architecture, Dr Campbell will lead technical development to support the operating system for fault-tolerant quantum computers.

He joins Riverlane from Amazon Web Services Quantum Computing group, and has held a number of academic positions over the past 16 years. His game-changing efforts include leading contributions to quantum error correction, fault-tolerant quantum logic and compilation and quantum algorithms.

He has also made pioneering contributions to random compilers, including the qDRIFT algorithm, which is the only known efficient method for simulating systems with highly complex interactions.

Additionally, while working with IBM and University College London, Earl contributed to the development of near-Clifford emulators that were integrated into Qiskit IBMs open-source software development kit for quantum computers.

At Amazon Web Services he was a leading contributor to its paper proposing a novel quantum computing architecture and established a team working on quantum algorithms.

At Riverlane he will be working alongside leaders who have joined from Microsoft, ARM, Samsung, Intel and the White House! Backed by some of Europes leading venture-capital funds and the University of Cambridge, Riverlane is bringing together leading talent from the worlds of business, academia, and industry to design its modular operating system to work with all hardware providers, whatever the type of qubit.

Riverlane has already partnered with a third of the worlds quantum computing hardware companies, and has successfully tested Deltaflow.OS with multiple hardware approaches, including trapped ions and superconducting circuits.

Dr Campbell said: Error correction is the next defining challenge in quantum computing and we will need to deliver fast, effective software to solve it. Over the past 16 years, I have been tackling questions like this as an academic and Im looking forward to putting theory into practice.

Ive followed Riverlane since its early days and Ive always been drawn to challenging work with the promise of delivering widespread social and commercial impact. Im excited to join a diverse team with a proven track record in developing software used by hardware companies around the world.

Steve Brierley, CEO and founder of Riverlane added: Solving error correction will be key to unlocking quantum usefulness across a range of foundational challenges, including clean energy, drug discovery, material science, and advanced chemistry.

Were delighted that Earl is bringing his world-class expertise in this challenge to the Riverlane team to accelerate our efforts and unlock the potential of this technology.

Just before Christmas, Riverlane joined a 7.5 million consortium to build an error corrected quantum processor working with a range of UK partners, including Rolls-Royce to apply this toward new applications in the aerospace industry. The funding comes via the UK governments National Quantum Technologies Programme.

The project, led by quantum computer manufacturer Universal Quantum, calls on Riverlanes software and expertise to tackle quantum error correction on a trapped-ion quantum computer.

Error correction is a crucial step in unlocking the promise of fault tolerant quantum computers capable of a range of transformative applications, and is at the core of everything Riverlane does.

The work with Rolls-Royce will explore how quantum computers can develop practical applications toward the development of more sustainable and efficient jet engines.

This starts by applying quantum algorithms to take steps to toward a greater understanding of how liquids and gases flow, a field known as fluid dynamics. Simulating such flows accurately is beyond the computational capacity of even the most powerful classical computers today.

The consortium also includes: academic researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Sussex; the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre; supply chain partners Edwards, TMD Technologies and Diamond Microwave; and commercialisation and dissemination experts Sia Partners and Qureca.Fluids behave according to a famous set of partial differential equations called the Navier-Stokes equations, the solutions to which are important for aircraft and engine design, as well as understanding ocean currents and predicting the weather.

Classical computers can take months or even years to solve some types of these equations but recent research has shown that quantum computers could find the solutions much more quickly.

View original post here:
Riverlane taking quantum computing to fresh frontiers | Business Weekly - Business Weekly

The only difference between science fiction and science is patience. Yesterdays mainframes are todays smartphones and todays neural networks will be tomorrows androids. But long before any technology becomes reality, someone has to dream it into existence.

The worlds of science and technology are constantly in flux. Its impossible to tell what the future will bring. However we can make some educated guesses based on recent breakthroughs in the fields of nuclear physics, quantum computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and Facebooks name change.

Lets set our time machines to January 28, 2100 to take an imaginary gander at the four most amazing science and technology breakthroughs the sort-of-far future has to offer.

This could very well be the most important technological breakthrough in human history.

The premise is simple: tiny machines that function at the cellular level capable of performing tissue repairs, destroying intruders, and delivering targeted nano-medications.

And this wouldnt necessarily mean filling your bloodstream with trillions of microscopic hunks of metal and silicon. Theres plenty of reason to believe scientists could take todays biological robots and turn them into artificial intelligence agents capable of executing code functions inside our bodies.

Imagine an AI swarm controlled by a bespoke neural network attached to our brain-computer-interfaces with the sole purpose of optimizing our biological functions.

We might not be able to solve immortality by 2100, but medical nanobots could go a long way towards bridging the gap.

Another technology thats sure to save innumerable human lives is fusion power. Luckily, were on the verge of solving that one already (at least in a rudimentary, proof-of-concept kind of way). With any luck, by the time Gen Zs grandkids are old enough to drive, well have advanced the technology to the point of abundance.

And thats when we can finallystart solving humanitys problems.

The big idea here is that well come close to perfecting fusion power in the future and, because of that, well be able to use quantum computers to optimize civilization.

Fusion could potentially be a limitless form of power and its theoretically feasible that we could eventually scale its energy-producing capabilities to such a degree that energy would be as ubiquitous for private and commercial use as air is.

Under such a paradigm, we can imagine a race to the top for scientific endeavor, the ultimate goal of which would be to produce a utopian society.

With near-infinite energy freely available, there would be little incentive to fight over resources and every incentive to optimize our existence.

And thats where quantum computers come in. If we can make classical algorithms learn to drive cars by building binary supercomputers, imagine what we could do with quantum supercomputing clusters harnessing the unbridled energy of entire stars.

We could assign algorithms to every living creature in the known universe and optimize for their existence. In essence, we could potentially solve the traveling salesman problem at the multiverse scale.

Admittedly, warp drives are a glamour technology. Technically-speaking, with Mars so nearby, we dont really have to travel beyond our own solar system.

But its well-documented that humanity has a need for speed. And if we ever have any intention of seeing stars other than Sol up close, were going to need spaceships that can travel really, really fast.

The big problem here is that the universe doesnt appear to allow anything to travel faster than light. And thats pretty slow. It would take us over four years to travel to the closest star to Earth. In galactic terms, thats like spending a 1/20th of your life walking to the neighbors house.

Warp drives could solve this. Instead of going faster, we could theoretically exploit the wackiness of the universe to go further in a given amount of time without increasing speed.

This involves shifting through warp bubbles in space with exotic temporal properties, but in essence its as simple as Einsteins observations that time works a bit differently at the edge of a black hole.

In the modern era, physicists are excited over some interesting equations and simulations that are starting to make the idea of warp drives seem less like science fiction and more like science.

An added benefit to the advent of the warp drive would be that it would exponentially increase the odds of humans discovering alien life.

If aliens arent right next door, then maybe theyre a few blocks over. If we can start firing probes beyond non-warp ranges by 2100, who knows what our long-range sensors will be able to detect?

Dont laugh. Its understandable if you dont think the metaverse belongs on this list. After all, its just a bunch of cartoon avatars and bad graphics that you need a VR headset for right?

But the metaverse of 2100 will be something different entirely. In 2022, Spotify tries to figure out what song you want to hear based on the music youve listened to in the past. In 2100, your brain-embedded AI assistant will know what song you want to hear because it has a direct connection to the area of your mind that processes sound, memory, and emotion.

The ideal metaverse would be a bespoke environment thats only indistinguishable from reality in its utopianism. In other words, youll only know its fake because you can control the metaverse.

While its obvious that jacking into the Matrix could pose a multitude of risks, the ability to take a vacation from reality could have positive implications ranging from treating depression to giving people with extremely low quality of life a reason to want to continue living.

The ultimate freedom is choosing your own reality. And its a safe bet that whoever owns the server it runs on is whos going to be in charge of the future.

See more here:
The 4 biggest science breakthroughs that Gen Z could live to see - The Next Web

Christopher Savoie, Ph.D., JD

CEO & Founder

CSO, Founder & Professor at University of Toronto

CTO & Founder

Professional Service Lead & Founder

Associate Director for Quantum Science IP & Founder

Lead Research Scientist & Founder

We founded Zapata to develop quantum algorithms and software that deliver real-world advances for applications on near term quantum computers.

Christopher Savoie, CEO & Founder

CEO & Founder

CSO, Founder & Professor at University of Toronto

Managing Director, C Sensei Group LLC

Board Director; CEO of RealPage, Inc.

Managing Director, Comcast Ventures

Principal at Prelude Ventures

Founding CEO & Vice Chairman of GRAIL, Former SVP of Google Ads, Apps, Maps and [x]

Board Director; Chair & President Family Foundation; Retired CSO & CMO Honeywell

Partner at Pillar VC (Board Observer)

Strong teams built around innovation in quantum algorithms are going to be the key to make these advances practical and widely available.

Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Co-Founder & CSO

Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland

Associate Professor of Physics at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics

Landon T. Clay Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Science at Harvard

Professor of Quantum Physics at Freie Universitt Berlin

Chair of the Zapata SAB, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Tufts University

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Lincoln Laboratory Fellow at MIT, Director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering, and Associate Director of the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics

To realize the full promise of quantum computing will take time, science, and engineering across the board. Zapata has brought together a fantastic team of researchers who want to work with academia and industry to develop tomorrows quantum algorithms.

Will Oliver, Associate Professor MIT

Vice President Business Development

Vice President of Engineering

Chief Orquestra Evangelist

Chief Marketing Officer

Chief Financial Officer

General Counsel

Vice President of Corporate Operations

Director, Global Channel Partnerships

Director, Quantum Solutions

Deputy General Counsel

Senior Legal Analyst

Zapata is all about bridging the gap and helping those interested parties get into the quantum ecosystem and connect them to the right hardware partner.

Jonny Olson, Co-Founding Scientist

Associate Director of Quantum AI

Lead Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Sr ML-DevOps Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Software Engineer

Cloud Engineer

Quantum Research Scientist

Quantum Research Scientist

Quantum Platform Engineering Manager

Quantum Application Scientist

Sr Quantum Platform Architect

Senior Quantum Platform Engineer

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Application Scientist

Quantum Software Engineer

Machine Learning Engineer

Quantum Platform Engineer

Quantum Platform Engineer

People at Zapata come from many different backgrounds and domains. Everyone is extremely driven, working at quantums edgesbut also genuinely thoughtful and caring.

Micha Stchy, Quantum Software Engineer

Quantum Solutions Engineer

Quantum Solution Engineer

Quantum Solution Engineer

UK/EU Business Development

Quantum Solutions Engineer

Strategic Partner Alliance Manager

Controller

Executive Assistant

People Operations Manager

Operations Administrator

Product Marketing Manager

Marketing Specialist

Marketing & Product Intern

Marketing Coordinator

Administrative Assistant

Here is the original post:
Quantum computing leaders founded Zapata to accelerate the ...

Complex problems need powerful computing

We make it possible for everyone to think bigger, create faster, and see further. By infusing AI and machine learning, our quantum solutions give you the power to solve the worlds most important and pressing problems.

When the computer is operational, five casings (like the white one shown at the top of the image) envelop the machine. These cans nest inside each other and act as thermal shields, keeping everything super cold and vacuum-sealed inside.

These photon-carrying cables deliver signals to and from the chip to drive qubit operations and return the measured results.

Beneath the heat exchangers sits the mixing chamber. Inside, different forms of liquid heliumhelium-3 and helium-4separate and evaporate, diffusing the heat.

These gold plates separate cooling zones. At the bottom, they plunge to one-hundredth of a Kelvinhundreds of times as cold as outer space.

The QPU (quantum processing unit) features a gold-plated copper disk with a silicon chip inside that contains the machines brain.

Read the rest here:
Quantum Computing | Rigetti Computing