The development of large scale quantum computers is expected to be a decade long journey. Some predict a quantum winter before early investors see returns. This need not be the case for those willing to look more widely. Quantum computing is the poster child of the emerging quantum technology sector. However, the same underlying technologies…
Striking progress modelling molecular vibrations with a quantum simulator brings the abstract quest for quantum supremacy into context. Is this a pointer to medium term commercial applications? The world is waiting for a first demonstration of quantum supremacy, a computation not practical on any conventional computer. However behind that headline will lie a number of…
Quantum computing makes headlines, but its sister technologies of quantum cryptography and quantum sensing are reaching market sooner. The first quantum revolution began in 1901 when Max Planck showed that the light emitted from a heated black-body consists of discrete quanta, later dubbed photons. Nature turns out to be built in its entirety on the…
Excitement mounts as we approach a demonstration of quantum supremacy. However a very long road remains to build a fault tolerant quantum computer Quantum hardware announcements continue to come at speed: Google has just announced Bristlecone, a 72 superconducting qubit device (though it remains to be seen if it can maintain the high fidelity performance of its…
The breadth of the UK national quantum technology programme is impressive. Four flavours of qubit technology were on display, but its not just quantum computing , cryptography, sensors and imaging were just as strongly represented. Now in its third year, the momentum really shows. Hand portable and chip scale devices that are at or near…
Articles in the popular press have given competing experimentalists the opportunity for some polite scientific knocking copy A series of recent articles across the New Scientist, Financial Times and Bloomberg quote leading experimental groups, and give insight into the state of reality and hype in the nascent quantum computing sector. Different scientific groups have spent years…
An immediate challenge for the interested business observer is how to interpret the true state of progress against a background of hype and corporate spin. All conventional computing is ultimately based on data stored as digital bits, each a 1 or 0, and their manipulation via logic gates. The great power of modern computing comes…
