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AWS buys before it tries with quantum networking center

Fundamental problems of qubit physics aside, the cloud giant thinks it can help

Brandon Vigliarolo Wed 22 Jun 2022 // 00:52 UTC

Nothing in the quantum hardware world is fully cooked yet, but quantum computing is quite a bit further along than quantum networking – an esoteric but potentially significant technology area, particularly for ultra-secure transactions. Amazon Web Services is among those working to bring quantum connectivity from the lab to the real world.
Short of developing its own quantum processors, AWS has created an ecosystem around existing quantum devices and tools via its Braket (no, that's not a typo) service. While these bits and pieces focus on compute, the tech giant has turned its gaze to quantum networking.
Alongside its Center for Quantum Computing, which it launched in late 2021, AWS has announced the launch of its Center for Quantum Networking. The latter is grandly working to solve "fundamental scientific and engineering challenges and to develop new hardware, software, and applications for quantum networks," the internet souk declared.

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Businesses brace for quantum computing disruption by end of decade

As one expert warns overhype will lead to QC winter. Plus: Mystery Huawei quantum patent surfaces

Dan Robinson Thu 16 Jun 2022 // 11:15 UTC

While business leaders expect quantum computing to play a significant role in industry by 2030, some experts don't believe the tech is going to be ready for production deployment in the near future.
The findings, from a survey titled "2022 Quantum Readiness" commissioned by consultancy EY, refer to UK businesses, although it is likely that the conclusions are equally applicable to global organizations.
According to EY, 81 percent of senior UK executives expect quantum computing to have a significant impact in their industry within seven and a half years, with almost half (48 percent) believing that quantum technology will begin to transform industries as soon as 2025.

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Researchers claim quantum device performs 9,000-year calculation in microseconds

In Gaussian boson sampling at least, quantum supremecy is here

Lindsay Clark Thu 2 Jun 2022 // 09:16 UTC

Researchers in Canada have conducted a quantum computing experiment that they claim completes a calculation in just a fraction of a second that would take a conventional computer 9,000 years.
Jonathan Lavoie, an experimental physicist at quantum computing company Xanadu, and colleagues reported the results from a device designed to sample an unknown probability distribution of light passing through a network of optical fibers.

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Quantum computing startup probed in report, securities suit

From alleging wild falsehoods to questioning man behind the curtain, Scorpion stings hell out of IonQ

Nicole Hemsoth Wed 1 Jun 2022 // 18:09 UTC

Quantum computing startup IonQ is facing a securities fraud lawsuit after a barrage of accusations came to light in a blistering report from Scorpion Capital, which claims the company lied about the maturity (and even existence of) its quantum device in addition to a smattering of claimed financial fictions.
The Scorpion Capital report, issued May 3, provides a rigorously scathing assessment of the IonQ technology, which is described as "a useless toy that can't even add 1+1" as assessed by internal experiments run by unnamed but numerous quantum experts hired by Scorpion and exhaustively detailed in the full report [PDF].
It's not just the company's technology on the chopping block, either. Scorpion Capital calls the startup "a part-time side-hustle run by two academics," one of whom, CEO and founder, Peter Chapman, "appears to be making up his MIT educational credentials," something we'll get to momentarily.

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BT starts commercial trial of quantum secured London network

3-year deal with Toshiba to run tech with customers across the CIty, West End, and Slough

Dan Robinson Thu 28 Apr 2022 // 08:30 UTC

Updated BT and Toshiba have announced the trial of a commercial quantum secured metro network in London, set to run for three years to evaluate the use of the technology.
The system, which is operational now, uses quantum key distribution (QKD) over standard fibre optic links to securely encrypt data.
The London quantum secured metro network has netted accounting firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) as its first customer. The company will use the network to connect two of its sites in the capital, one at Canary Wharf in London's Docklands, and the other near London Bridge. However, BT said there will be other users over the three-year period of the trial.

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Quantum-tunneling memory could boost AI energy efficiency by 100x

Boffins get excited about building better machine synapses

Brandon Vigliarolo Sun 1 May 2022 // 12:00 UTC

There's a potential solution on the cards to the energy expenditure problems plaguing AI training, and it sounds simple: just strengthen the "synapses" that move electrons through a memory array.
Electrical and Systems Engineering Professor Shantanu Chakrabartty and two of his colleagues at Washington University in St Louis, USA, have authored a Nature-published paper explaining how they have used the natural properties of electrons to reduce the energy used to train machine learning models.
The project had the researchers trying to build a learning-in-memory synaptic array that had digital synapses that operated dynamically instead of statically, such that they only need energy when changing a state, but not to maintain one.

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CEA sees future in waferscale quantum computing chips

French research giant, C12 see challenges, but prototype slated for 2024

Dylan Martin Thu 24 Mar 2022 // 17:30 UTC

Here's something we will only believe once we see it: A quantum computing chip the size of a large silicon wafer.
Paris-based quantum computing startup C12 Quantum Electronics is working on the multi-qubit chips in conjunction with CEA, the government-backed French research institution. CEA has an overall annual budget [PDF] of €5 billion and its own supercomputing bona fides, so at least the startup is getting some real research muscle behind it.
C12 said this new work is building from a "breakthrough in manufacturing quantum chips on 200mm silicon wafers." 200 millimeters equals roughly 7.8 inches in diameter, which is a very large surface on which to fabricate several qubits — short for quantum bits — the fundamental yet extremely delicate building blocks of quantum computers. Not many regular chip companies have even tried to make a wafer-size chip due to the multidimensional complexities involved. In recent memory, only Cerebras Systems comes to mind.

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JPMorgan Chase readies for post-quantum security world

Expanding the reach of quantum communications, QKD. Literally

Nicole Hemsoth Thu 17 Feb 2022 // 17:21 UTC

These days it seems every major company is outlining a quantum strategy, even if those plans are nebulous at best. However, in areas like financial services, especially at global banks like JPMorgan Chase, getting a handle on both quantum computing and quantum security are top priorities.
It all boils down to the next generation of secure transactions. As the reliability and capability of quantum computers expands those systems are more prepared to crack traditional modes of securing encrypted data. The best defense in this post-quantum security world are quantum communications and specifically, quantum key distribution (QKD).
Think of quantum communications as two parties agreeing on the same key using photonic-based quantum technology. Those parties agree on a key by measuring particles as they lose fidelity. As the distance increases between the two servers and particles break it becomes impractical to get them to agree on the same key, so getting distances ever-longer is one of the most pressing challenges when it comes to post-quantum security.

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A diverse range of processing units linked via interconnects. Sounds familiar? Yes, it's IBM's quantum computing

System Two takes modular, data-center-inspired approach. Plus: 127-qubit Eagle Big Blue hopes will fly

Agam Shah Tue 16 Nov 2021 // 01:55 UTC

Huge, monolithic quantum computers aren't in IBM's vision of the technology. Rather, the IT giant sees parallel, distributed systems made up of different kinds of quantum computing units working in unison.
The tech titan said its new IBM Quantum System Two, announced on Monday, is its first step in its data-center-style approach to quantum computers, and an acknowledgment that quantum computers aren't all alike.
Its modular approach involves piecing together different types of quantum processing units, and have them communicate through an interconnect. These computing units will be stored in accessible refrigeration units.

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Seagate demos hard disk drive with an NVMe interface. Yup, one with spinning platters

Oh look, it's the promise of multiple actuators again

Liam Proven in Prague Wed 17 Nov 2021 // 08:04 UTC

At last week's Open Compute Project global summit, Seagate demonstrated a mechanical hard disk drive with an NVMe interface – an interface normally reserved for SSDs. The clue is right there in the name: NVM, Non-Volatile Memory. So the first question is... why?
Well, one purported reason is speed. While Seagate has been promising multi-actuator hard disks for about four years now, you still can't buy them.
The idea is that by having two (or more) separate arms scuttling independently to and fro across the media, hard disks can run fast enough that current SATA interfaces will prove to be a bottleneck. That's 6Gb/s for SATA revision 3, or 600MB/s in reality, while NVMe maxes out at 20Gb/s.

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