In a breakthrough achievement towards making quantum computing practical on a large scale, scientists at the University of Oxford have successfully demonstrated distributed quantum computing for the first time. By allowing small quantum devices to work together rather than overloading a single machine, the researchers achieved quantum teleportation of logical gates, according to the findings published in the journal Nature, in a study titled ‘Distributed quantum computing across an optical network link’. Quantum computers use qubits (quantum bits) instead of the traditional bits of classical computers which can perform calculations at speeds unattainable by today’s technology. However, the scalability of quantum computing has remained a challenge for scientists, despite the technology being around for years. To overcome the obstacle, the researchers, instead of moving qubits to achieve quantum teleportation, used quantum teleportation of logical gates (the minimum components of an algorithm) – across a network link. “Previous demonstrations of quantum teleportation have focused on transferring quantum states between physically separated systems. In our study, we use quantum teleportation to create interactions between these distant systems,” said study lead Dougal Main.

Full report : First distributed quantum algorithm brings quantum supercomputers closer.