Quantum Computing

Cool idea: Blimps lifting quantum data centers to the stratosphere

Mike Franco — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 17:03:00 GMT

In a proposal that reads more like the script to a new sci-fi movie, researchers are suggesting a unique way to tackle one of the core problems of quantum computing. If deployed, it would redefine how we think of "cloud computing."

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Airships, Blimp, Quantum, KAUST, Stratospheric

Amazon's quantum chip promises error correction with 'cat qubits'

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 15:11:00 GMT

Following the release of Microsoft's latest quantum computing chip last week, Amazon has unveiled its first one today, after four years in the making.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Amazon, Quantum, Processing, Chips, Computers

Microsoft unveils first quantum chip powered by 'topological qubits'

Abhimanyu Ghoshal — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:57:50 GMT

Microsoft says it's made a major breakthrough in quantum computing capabilities with the Majorana 1, its first quantum chip, and the first of its kind to be powered by what are called topological qubits.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Microsoft, Fermions, Qubit, Quantum

Perovskite LED unlocks next-level quantum random number generation

Loz Blain — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 10:17:02 GMT

Random numbers are critical to encryption algorithms, but they're nigh-on impossible for computers to generate. Now, Swedish researchers say they've created a new, super-secure quantum random number generator using cheap perovskite LEDs.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Perovskite, Linkoping University, Cybersecurity, Cryptography, Encryption

Silicon quantum computing surpasses 99% accuracy in three studies

Michael Irving — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 03:24:21 GMT

Three teams of scientists from around the world have achieved a major milestone in quantum computing. All three groups demonstrated better than 99 percent accuracy in silicon-based quantum devices, paving the way for practical, scalable quantum computers that are error-free.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum, Quantum Computing, Silicon, University of New South Wales, RIKEN, Technical University of Delft, Electrons, New Atlas Audio

Quantum computing hits the desktop, no cryo-cooling required

Loz Blain — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 05:44:13 GMT

Superconducting quantum computers are huge and incredibly finicky machines at this point. They need to be isolated from anything that might knock an electron's spin off and ruin a calculation. That includes mechanical isolation, in extreme vacuum chambers, where only a few molecules might remain in a cubic meter or two of space. It includes electromagnetic forces – IBM, for example, surrounds its precious quantum bits, or qubits, with mu metals to absorb all magnetic fields.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, Desktop, New Atlas Audio

Toshiba breaks quantum communication record with 600 km of optical fibers

Michael Irving — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 03:30:44 GMT

A quantum internet could one day allow quantum computers to team up and tackle some gigantic problems. Now the world is a step closer to that reality, as researchers at Toshiba have demonstrated quantum communications sent over a record-breaking 600 km (373 miles) of optical fiber.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum, Quantum-Information, Quantum Computing, Quantum Information, Fiber Optic, Optics, Data, Toshiba, Network, Internet, New Atlas Audio

Cosmic rays can destabilize quantum computers, MIT study warns

Michael Irving — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 04:08:01 GMT

Quantum computers are advancing at an exciting pace, but unfortunately this progress may soon stall. Cosmic rays streaming down to Earth could interfere with the integrity of the information in these quantum computers, and now an MIT team has shown just how vulnerable they are and what it might take to protect them.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, Computer, MIT, Quantum-Information, Quantum, Cosmic, Radiation, New Atlas Audio

Landmark hot qubit research promises bigger, cheaper quantum computers

Loz Blain — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 05:48:20 GMT

Traditional computers, which perform their wonderfully quick calculations using millions of simple on/off transistors organized into logic gates, spent the last half a century getting faster and faster, to the point where we could reasonably expect the number of transistors on a chip to double every couple of years, while becoming half as expensive. To follow this famous "Moore's Law," they've become smaller and smaller, and thus faster and faster, to the point where human manufacturing ingenuity has run up against a hard obstacle.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, University of New South Wales, Delft University of Technology, Qubit, New Atlas Audio

Information teleported between two computer chips for the first time

Michael Irving — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 02:43:33 GMT

Scientists at the University of Bristol and the Technical University of Denmark have achieved quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time. The team managed to send information from one chip to another instantly without them being physically or electronically connected, in a feat that opens the door for quantum computers and quantum internet.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, Quantum-Information, University of Bristol, Computer, Technical University of Denmark, Entanglement

Google both has and hasn't achieved "quantum supremacy"

Michael Irving — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 04:31:56 GMT

Google has announced that it has achieved “quantum supremacy” – the point where a quantum computer successfully performs an operation considered impossible for traditional computers. This event has long been predicted as an important milestone in the development of quantum computers, but rival IBM disagrees that quantum supremacy has been achieved at all.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, IBM, Google, Quantum, University of California Santa Barbara, Supercomputer, Computers, New Atlas Audio

Schrodinger's superconductor naturally stable in two states at once

Michael Irving — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 05:57:04 GMT

Quantum computers have the potential to someday far outperform our traditional machines, thanks to their ability to store data on “qubits” that can exist in two states at once. That sounds good in theory, but in practice it’s hard to make materials that can do that and stay stable for long periods of time. Now, researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found a superconducting material that naturally stays in two states at once, which could be an important step towards quantum computers.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, Materials, Electronic, superconductor, New Atlas Audio

Physicists measure how long graphene qubits hover in "alive/dead" superposition

Michael Irving — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 11:23:30 GMT

Practical quantum computers may be another step closer to reality – and like so many technologies, we have graphene to thank for it. The bits of information in quantum computers (qubits) can famously exist in two states at once, and now researchers from MIT and other institutions have managed to record just how long that superposition state can last in a qubit made of graphene.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: MIT, superconductor, Quantum Computing, Graphene, Materials, Qubit, Quantum Physics, New Atlas Audio

Voltage control method brings large-scale quantum computers within reach

Colin Jeffrey — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:39:50 GMT

Large-scale, practical quantum computers always seem to be just around the corner, with small research steps edging them tantalizingly closer. Now a large leap towards their practical realization. Scientists at the University of Sussex claim to have produced a method to use voltage control over ions instead of lasers in quantum logic gates, thereby removing one of the largest stumbling blocks to producing a workable, full-sized system.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Ions, Quantum Computing, Laser, Microchip, University of Sussex

Slamming carbon out of diamonds with silicon creates quantum computing bridge

Colin Jeffrey — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:26:23 GMT

Just as modern microprocessors evolved from many decades of ever-improving electronic components before them, so too the movement towards quantum computers requires the development and integration of many devices to create a fully-functioning system. Now, in one more step on the road to this end, researchers at Harvard University and Sandia Ion Beam Laboratory claim to have created the very first quantum "bridge" that could effectively link strings of quantum computers together in a single networked unit.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Ions, Harvard, Quantum Computing, Diamonds, Photon, Sandia Labs

China launches world's first quantum satellite

Colin Jeffrey — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 05:47:19 GMT

A Chinese orbiter launched atop a Long March-2D rocket is claimed to be the world's first quantum communications satellite earlier this week. According to Xinhua, the 600-kg (1,320-lb) Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) satellite will sit in a sun-synchronous orbit above the Earth at an altitude of around 500 km (310 mi) from where it will transmit quantum-encrypted messages, attempt to send beam entangled photons, and test teleportation between itself and stations on the ground.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Satellite, Quantum, Quantum Information, Entanglement, Cryptography

"Quantum data bus" can relocate quantum information

Richard Moss — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 19:49:14 GMT

While quantum computing has made great gains in recent years in terms of transistors and logic gates and reprogrammable chips, the technology still lacks one vital component: data transfer. This is a fundamental part of normal microprocessor operation; it involves the routing of information from one location to another. An international team of researchers has successfully trialled a "quantum data bus" that does just that, however, thanks to a technique called perfect state transfer.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Quantum Computing, Quantum Information, RMIT

Quantum computers inch closer to reality thanks to entangled qubits in silicon

Dario Borghino — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 21:00:18 GMT

Practical quantum computers are still years away, but lately the pace of research seems to have picked up. After building the basic blocks of a quantum computer in silicon and storing quantum information for up to 30 seconds, scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have now violated a principle of classical physics to demo for the first time a pair of entangled, high-fidelity quantum bits (qubits) in silicon. The advance could help unleash the power of a new kind of computation that would affect everything from data cryptography to drug design, overnight deliveries and subatomic particle experiments.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: University of New South Wales, Quantum Computing, Entanglement

Quantum computing breakthrough: Qubits made from standard silicon transistors

Dario Borghino — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 17:24:54 GMT

In what is likely a major breakthrough for quantum computing, researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia have managed for the first time to build the fundamental blocks of a quantum computer in silicon. The device was created using standard manufacturing techniques, by modifying current-generation silicon transistors, and the technology could scale up to include thousands, even millions of entangled quantum bits on a single chip. Gizmag spoke to the lead researchers to find out more.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: University of New South Wales, Quantum Computing, Quantum Simulators

Quantum leap: IBM scientists lay the foundations for a practical, scalable quantum computer

Dario Borghino — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 02:43:14 GMT

IBM scientists have unveiled two crucial advances toward the creation of a practical quantum computer: an effective way to detect and correct quantum errors, and the design of a silicon chip that can scale up to house a large number of entangled quantum bits.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: IBM, Quantum Computing, Quantum

New micro-ring resonator creates quantum entanglement on a silicon chip

Colin Jeffrey — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 17:38:41 GMT

The quantum entanglement of particles, such as photons, is a prerequisite for the new and future technologies of quantum computing, telecommunications, and cyber security. Real-world applications that take advantage of this technology, however, will not be fully realized until devices that produce such quantum states leave the realms of the laboratory and are made both small and energy efficient enough to be embedded in electronic equipment. In this vein, European scientists have created and installed a tiny "ring-resonator" on a microchip that is claimed to produce copious numbers of entangled photons while using very little power to do so.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Light, Laser, Resonators, Quantum, Microchip, Entanglement

Scientists create prototype quantum hard drive

Colin Jeffrey — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 11:47:45 GMT

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Otago in New Zealand have created a prototype quantum hard drive that may fundamentally alter the realm of secure, long-distance data encryption. Using atoms of the rare-earth element europium embedded in yttrium orthosilicate (YSO) crystals, the scientists have shattered previous records for quantum information retention by creating a storage device capable of holding quantum state information for up to six hours at a time.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Communications, Encryption, Prototype, Hard Drive, Australian National University, Quantum Information, University of Otago

Nanodiamond levitated in free space with lasers could further quantum computing

Randall Marsh — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 04:36:59 GMT

A recent experiment by researchers at the University of Rochester has managed to suspend a nano-sized diamond in free space with a laser and measure light emitted from it. Like the scientists who recently managed to freeze light in a crystal for up to a minute, these scholars believe their work has applications in the field of quantum computing.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: University of Rochester, Quantum Computing, Laser, Nanoscale, Diamonds

All-optical transistor could be a big leap for quantum computing

Dario Borghino — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:19:00 GMT

Researchers at MIT, Harvard and the Vienna University of Technology have developed a proof-of-concept optical switch that can be controlled by a single photon and is the equivalent of a transistor in an electronic circuit. The advance could improve power consumption in standard computers and have important repercussions for the development of an effective quantum computer.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: MIT, Harvard, Quantum Computing, Vienna University of Technology, Research

Quantum breakthrough: Scientists generate qubits within semiconductors

James Holloway — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:09:36 GMT

A significant step on the path to quantum computing has been taken by an international team of researchers applying a 22-year old theory. They have succeeded in creating quantum bits within a semiconductor for the very first time.

Category: Quantum Computing, Science

Tags: Computers, Quantum Computing, Semiconductors, Physics, Ruhr University Bochum