Quantum computers are regarded as the future of computing, and various breakthroughs are coming one after another.Canadian startup Xanadu announced that they have built the world's first scalable networked, modular, photon-based quantum computer "Aurora", which can run at room temperature and can be used for drug research and development and machine learning algorithm research.Relevant papers have been published in the journal Nature.
Xanadu says quantum computers have been facing improvementsPerformance (error correction and tolerance), scalability (network)Two big problems, and now they've solved the latter.
The Aurora optical quantum computer adopts a modular design and is equipped with 35 photonic chips and a connecting fiber length of 13 kilometers. They are divided into four similar units and distributed on 4 rack servers to achieve optical interconnection and networking.
Networked through fiber optic interconnects, up to 84 compressors and 36 photon number-resolving detectors can provide12 physical photon qubit modes.
As a photon-based quantum computer, it uses photon qubits to process data, using lenses, fiber optics and other optical components to combine and recombine laser beams across multiple chips based on algorithms.
Prior to this, quantum computer research had been working hard to increase the number of qubits. For example, Google Willow has 105 and IBM Condor has as many as 1,121.
However, XanaduAurora only requires 12 and is very easy to scale.
This optical quantum computer has passed a series of rigorous benchmark tests, including one test that ran stably for 2 hours continuously.
Traditional superconducting quantum computers require a cool operating environment, but XanaduAurora's server racks can run at room temperature, although the photon-counting detectors still need to be kept cool in another room.
Xanadu currently has 220 employees and has raised $281 million from multiple investors and the Canadian federal government.
They plan to build the first quantum data center in 2029, containing thousands of servers and 1 million qubits.
Next, Xanadu needs to work hard to overcome the fault tolerance of optical quantum computers.
In addition, PsiQuantum in the United States and Quandela in France are also studying optical quantum computers, but they use materials such as neutral atoms and ions.