Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced Thursday that it has developed a new quantum computing chip, aiming to dramatically reduce the time and resources needed to build a useful quantum computer.
The prototype chip, called Ocelot, currently possesses only a small fraction of the computing power required for practical applications. However, AWS, the cloud computing division of Amazon.com, believes this technology could represent a significant step toward creating a functional quantum machine, although a specific launch date has not yet been set.
The announcement, coinciding with the publication of a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Nature, comes amid a flurry of activity in the quantum computing field. Competitors such as Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft, and the startup PsiQuantum have made significant advances in recent months.
Quantum computers have the potential to perform calculations that are far beyond the capabilities of conventional computers, potentially revolutionizing fields like materials science and drug discovery. However, a primary challenge lies in the inherent instability of qubits, the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers, which are prone to errors.
Scientists have known since the 1990s that some qubits can be dedicated to correcting these errors, but the development of physical qubits that can yield enough “logical” qubits for practical use has been a long-standing goal. Current industry estimates suggest that a useful quantum computer would require around one million physical qubits to achieve a workable number of logical qubits.
AWS reports that its prototype chip utilizes a different approach. The Ocelot chip employs a “cat” qubit design, referencing Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, and uses only nine physical qubits to produce one functional logical qubit. This breakthrough could allow for the creation of useful computers with only 100,000 qubits rather than a million.
Oskar Painter, AWS director of quantum hardware, told Reuters, “It should allow us to provide between five and 10 times lower numbers of physical qubits to implement the error correction in a fully scaled machine. So that’s the real benefit.”
Painter added that the chip was constructed using standard techniques from the semiconductor industry, and that AWS and its partners are looking toward customized techniques and materials.
“That’s where I think there’s going to be a huge amount of innovation and that will be the thing that could really reel in timelines for development. If we make improvements at the materials and processing level, this will make the underlying technology just much simpler,” Painter said.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen Coates)
