Equal1, a spin-off company from the University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland, has unveiled the world’s first silicon-based quantum computer at a conference in California. Dubbed Bell-1, the quantum computer weighs a mere 440 pounds (200 kgs) and can be plugged into a regular electrical socket, the company said in a press release. Quantum computers are the next frontier of computing, and they have the potential to solve complex problems like drug discovery, climate change, and more, thanks to their superior computational rates. These speeds are achieved by leveraging the quantum properties of materials and carrying out computations at temperatures very close to absolute zero degrees Celsius. The extensive infrastructure needed to achieve this makes quantum computing inaccessible for many individuals and organizations. Equal1’s approach of using a silicon-based quantum solution drastically shrinks the technical requirements needed to run a quantum system, making it feasible to build rack-mounted quantum computers. A quantum computer built this way can be easily integrated into existing high-performance computing (HPC) data centers and help us solve problems with quantum computational capabilities starting now.

Full report : The new silicon-based quantum computer is equipped with a cryocooler than can bring temperatures down to 0.3 Kelvin with using external dilution refrigerators.