Rigetti looks to 24qubit UK quantum computer
Rigetti UK and Oxford Instruments NanoScience have completed a three year project to develop and install one of the UK’s first quantum computers.
The £10 million consortium led by Rigetti UK aimed to accelerate the commercialization of quantum computing in the UK through the delivery of a 32qubit quantum computer in the UK, working with the Quantum Software Lab at the University of Edinburgh, Phasecraft, and Standard Chartered Bank.
The 32-qubit Aspen-class quantum computer was Rigetti’s first system deployed in the UK and was made available over the cloud to the Company’s UK partners via Rigetti’s Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) cloud computing platform to pursue quantum application and algorithm development.
Rigetti is now set to deliver a 24-qubit quantum computing system to the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) based on the latest Ankaa-class chip architecture.
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The Quantum Software Lab worked to develop new ways of testing quantum hardware and verifying the performance of quantum programs, and worked with Standard Chartered Bank to advance quantum machine learning applications for finance. Phasecraft used its knowledge of quantum algorithms and high-efficiency quantum software to harness the system for near-term applications in materials design and simulation.
The system was hosted at Oxford Instruments’ Tubney Woods facility using Oxford Instruments’ ProteoxLX dilution refrigerator. Smooth and seamless infrastructure was essential so that the consortium partners could run algorithms without interruption via QCS. Backup power and resilient cooling systems in highly controlled temperature and humidity environments guaranteed high uptime of the quantum system.
“Completing this project, with the end result being a useful 32-qubit quantum computer, is an exceptional achievement for all of the project partners. It takes a world-class team to build and deploy a quantum computer. The UK has become a world leader in quantum computing technologies, and we are excited to continue to contribute to its quantum computing capabilities,” said Subodh Kulkarni, CEO of Rigetti.
“Rigetti plans to leverage this experience to continue to develop our UK quantum computing leadership as we embark on deploying a 24-qubit Ankaa-class quantum computer at the NQCC’s Harwell campus.”
Matt Martin, Managing Director at Oxford Instruments NanoScience, said, “The project was planned from the beginning to align with national strategic initiatives and is a fantastic step towards the commercial adoption of quantum computing in the UK. Our team learned a huge amount from this project, rising to every challenge. We have comfortably demonstrated both the reliability of the ProteoxLX and the proficiency of our service team.”
“Quantum research and algorithm development is nothing without the ability to test it in real-life situations. Hands-on access to Rigetti’s quantum hardware throughout this project enabled us to advance our quantum simulation algorithm and software development for near-term applications, which will support us in furthering our research in areas such as new material discovery. We also gained valuable insight into real-world use cases that will help with the adoption of practical quantum computing across many industries, including clean energy technologies such as batteries and solar,” said Ashley Montanaro, co-founder of phasecraft in Bristol, UK.
Professor Elham Kashefi, Director of the Quantum Software Lab and Professor of Quantum Computing at the University of Edinburgh, said, “This consortium enabled our research team to not only pursue important quantum algorithm work to further benchmark quantum devices using real quantum hardware, but to also grow our group and rebrand as the Quantum Software Lab (QSL) at the University of Edinburgh. We are already applying the techniques and protocols developed during this project towards advancing our understanding of the requirements of practical quantum computers.”
www.rigetti.com; www.phasecraft.io
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