What’s New: Intel Labs today unveiled what is believed to
be a first-of-its-kind cryogenic control chip — code-named “Horse
Ridge” — that will speed up development of full-stack quantum
computing systems. Horse Ridge will enable control of multiple
quantum bits (qubits) and set a clear path toward scaling larger
systems — a major milestone on the path to quantum practicality.
Developed together with Intel’s research collaborators at QuTech, a
partnership between TU Delft and TNO (Netherlands Organization for
Applied Scientific Research), Horse Ridge is fabricated using
Intel’s 22nm FinFET technology. In-house fabrication of these
control chips at Intel will dramatically accelerate the company’s
ability to design, test and optimize a commercially viable quantum
computer.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191209005145/en/
Stefano Pellerano, principal engineer at
Intel Labs, holds Horse Ridge. The new cryogenic control chip will
speed development of full-stack quantum computing systems, marking
a milestone in the development of a commercially viable quantum
computer. (Credit: Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)
“While there has been a lot of emphasis on
the qubits themselves, the ability to control many qubits at the
same time had been a challenge for the industry. Intel recognized
that quantum controls were an essential piece of the puzzle we
needed to solve in order to develop a large-scale commercial
quantum system. That’s why we are investing in quantum error
correction and controls. With Horse Ridge, Intel has developed a
scalable control system that will allow us to significantly speed
up testing and realize the potential of quantum computing.”
–Jim Clarke, Intel’s director of Quantum
Hardware
Why It Matters: In the race to realize the power and
potential of quantum computers, researchers have focused
extensively on qubit fabrication, building test chips that
demonstrate the exponential power of a small number of qubits
operating in superposition. However, in early quantum hardware
developments — including design, testing and characterization of
Intel’s silicon spin qubit and superconducting qubit systems —
Intel identified a major bottleneck toward realizing
commercial-scale quantum computing: interconnects and control
electronics.
With Horse Ridge, Intel introduces an elegant solution that will
enable the company to control multiple qubits and set a clear path
toward scaling future systems to larger qubit counts — a major
milestone on the path to quantum practicality.
What Quantum Practicality is: Quantum computers promise
the potential to tackle problems that conventional computers can’t
handle by leveraging a phenomena of quantum physics that allows
qubits to exist in multiple states simultaneously. As a result,
qubits can conduct a large number of calculations at the same time
— dramatically speeding up complex problem-solving.
The quantum research community is still at mile one of a
marathon toward demonstrating quantum practicality, a benchmark
against which the quantum research community can determine whether
a quantum system can deliver game-changing performance to solve
real-world problems. Intel´s investment in quantum computing covers
the full hardware and software stack in pursuit of the development
and commercialization of a practical, commercially viable quantum
system.
Why Horse Ridge is Important: To date, researchers have
been focused on building small-scale quantum systems to demonstrate
the potential of quantum devices. In these efforts, researchers
have relied on existing electronic tools and high-performance
computing rack-scale instruments to connect the quantum system
inside the cryogenic refrigerator to the traditional computational
devices regulating qubit performance and programming the
system.
These devices are often custom-designed to control individual
qubits, requiring hundreds of connective wires into and out of the
refrigerator in order to control the quantum processor. This
extensive control cabling for each qubit will hinder the ability to
scale the quantum system to the hundreds or thousands of qubits
required to demonstrate quantum practicality, not to mention the
millions of qubits required for a commercially viable quantum
solution.
With Horse Ridge, Intel radically simplifies the control
electronics required to operate a quantum system. Replacing these
bulky instruments with a highly-integrated system-on-chip (SoC)
will simplify system design and allow for sophisticated signal
processing techniques to accelerate set-up time, improve qubit
performance and enable the system to efficiently scale to larger
qubit counts.
More About Horse Ridge: Horse Ridge is a highly
integrated, mixed-signal SoC that brings the qubit controls into
the quantum refrigerator — as close as possible to the qubits
themselves. It effectively reduces the complexity of quantum
control engineering from hundreds of cables running into and out of
a refrigerator to a single, unified package operating near the
quantum device.
Designed to act as a radio frequency (RF) processor to control
the qubits operating in the refrigerator, Horse Ridge is programmed
with instructions that correspond to basic qubit operations. It
translates those instructions into electromagnetic microwave pulses
that can manipulate the state of the qubits.
Named for one of the coldest regions in Oregon, the Horse Ridge
control chip was designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures —
approximately 4 Kelvin. To put this in context, 4 Kelvin is only
warmer than absolute zero — a temperature so cold that atoms nearly
stop moving.
This feat is particularly exciting as Intel progresses its
research into silicon spin qubits, which have the potential to
operate at slightly higher temperatures than current quantum
systems require.
Today, a quantum computer operates at in the millikelvin range—
just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. But silicon spin
qubits have properties that could allow them to operate at 1 Kelvin
or higher temperatures, which would dramatically reduce the
challenges of refrigerating the quantum system.
As research progresses, Intel aims to have cryogenic controls
and silicon spin qubits operate at the same temperature level. This
will enable the company to leverage its expertise in advanced
packaging and interconnect technologies to create a solution with
the qubits and controls in one streamlined package.
More Context: What It Will Take to Make Quantum Computers
Practical (Jim Clarke Editorial) | How Quantum Computing will
Answer Unsolved Problems (YouTube Video) | Quantum Computing (Press
Kit) | Intel Labs (Press Kit) | QuTech
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), a leader in the semiconductor industry, is
shaping the data-centric future with computing and communications
technology that is the foundation of the world’s innovations. The
company’s engineering expertise is helping address the world’s
greatest challenges as well as helping secure, power and connect
billions of devices and the infrastructure of the smart, connected
world – from the cloud to the network to the edge and everything in
between. Find more information about Intel at newsroom.intel.com
and intel.com.
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel
marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of
others.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191209005145/en/
Monika Lischke +49-(0)15221-868453 monika.lischke@intel.com
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024