A chip that experts have said could be “pivotal” to creating effective quantum computers has been unveiled. Oxford Ionics has said its chip can be mass-produced and means the world’s first useful quantum computer could be built in three years time. The new technology makes it possible to do very complex calculations extremely quickly and solve problems too difficult for regular computers. University of Oxford Associate Professor of Quantum Computing Aleks Kissinger said the new chip was “very promising”. Oxford Ionics said only one technology – trapped ions – has demonstrated the performance needed to build a useful quantum computer.
The new chip created by the Kidlington-based company, is designed to be capable of controlling these trapped ions – providing over twice the performance of previous attempts.
The company said the results indicate that “the dawn of useful quantum computing is far closer than previously thought”. Dr Tom Harty, co-founder and chief technical officer at Oxford Ionics, said: “This is an incredibly exciting moment for our team, and for the positive impact that quantum computing will have on society at large.” Quantum computers make use of the weird qualities of sub-atomic particles. So-called quantum particles can be in two places at the same time and also strangely connected even though they are millions of miles apart. The computers found in most of our homes and workplaces process data in bits, which have a binary value of either zero or one. Quantum computers instead use a two-state unit for data processing called a qubit.
Full report : Researchers develop a trapped ion based chip which could be a deal breaker for quantum computing.
