| Title | IBM Alumni Creates Quantum Processors at Rigetti Computing | |
| Date | Thursday February 11 2016, @01:01AM | |
| Author | CoolHand | |
| Topic | ||
| from the fun-with-quantums dept. | ||
A researcher from IBM's quantum computing research group has created a startup that could compete with the likes of D-Wave and Google:
The airy Berkeley office space of startup Rigetti Computing boasts three refrigerators—but only one of them stores food. The other two use liquid helium to cool experimental computer chips to a fraction of a degree from absolute zero. The two-year-old company is trying to build the hardware needed to power a quantum computer, which could trounce any conventional machine by tapping into quantum mechanics.
The company aims to produce a prototype chip by the end of 2017 that is significantly more complex than those built by other groups working on fully programmable quantum computers. The following generation of chips should be able to accelerate some kinds of machine learning and run highly accurate chemistry simulations that might unlock new kinds of industrial processes, says Chad Rigetti, the startup's founder and CEO.
[...] Rigetti aims to ultimately set up a kind of quantum-powered cloud computing service, where customers pay to run problems on the company's superconducting chips. It is also working on software to make it easy for other companies to write code for its quantum hardware.
[...] The startup is currently testing a three-qubit chip made using aluminum circuits on a silicon wafer, and the design due next year should have 40 qubits. Rigetti says that's possible thanks to design software his company has created that reduces the number of prototypes that will need to be built on the way to a final design. Versions with 100 or more qubits would be able to improve on ordinary computers when it comes to chemistry simulations and machine learning, he says.
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printed from SoylentNews, IBM Alumni Creates Quantum Processors at Rigetti Computing on 2024-04-24 22:56:31