Scientists in the U.K. have successfully connected two separate quantum processors, paving the way for a quantum internet and, potentially, quantum supercomputers. Increasing the number of quantum bits (otherwise known as qubits) in a quantum computer has proven challenging, as quantum computers are “noisy” — they are sensitive to any interference from heat, movement or electromagnetism and fail much more often than bits in classical computing. The more qubits there are in a quantum computer, the more complex the system becomes and the greater the risk of decoherence — the loss of quantum information — and the resources needed to prevent errors. That’s why scientists are focusing on building more reliable qubits before scaling systems up to the millions of qubits needed for a genuinely useful quantum computer. In a study published Feb. 5 in the journal Nature, scientists proposed working around this scalability problem by connecting separate quantum processors together using existing fiber optic cabling, thereby increasing the number of available qubits. This is an important step in demonstrating the feasibility of distributed quantum computing (DQC), whereby quantum processors are connected together to perform calculations. DQC would enable multiple quantum processors to work together to solve increasingly complex problems in far less time than it would take classical supercomputers.

Full report : Scientists connect two quantum processors using existing fiber optic cables for the first time.