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Today, IonQ announced the acquisition of the operating assets of Entangled Networks in Toronto, Canada. In addition to expanding its technology base, IonQ will also expand its global footprint with the Entangled Networks team joining the newly formed IonQ Canada.
Entangled Networks and its multi-core technology fill a key need in IonQ’s future hardware strategy.
IonQ architecture
IonQ currently uses a trapped ion quantum computing architecture centered around a linear array containing ion qubits. Lasers are used for cooling, creating quantum gates, and taking readings.
The qubits in IonQ’s system are now contained in a single chip called a quantum processing unit (QPU). The QPU has multiple linear ion trapping zones, each with a capacity of ~100 qubits. IonQ’s roadmap not only shows an increasing number of qubits in each QPU, but also the initial need to connect and network qubits across QPUs using photonic interconnects and optical networking techniques. There was also a plan to develop such technology.
Now, instead of being developed by IonQ, technology taken from Entangled Networks performs network functions and ties them together, allowing quantum processing functions to be put together. This plays a key role in helping IonQ achieve its ultimate architectural goal of fault-tolerant computation using entangled qubits across multiple QPUs scaled to millions of qubits. fulfill.
The importance of the network to IonQ’s future became apparent when the company unveiled its five-year roadmap in 2020. In one of his earlier roadmap discussions with IonQ co-founder and CTO Dr. Jungsang Kim, he said his IonQ plans to pave. A path to modularity by creating smaller, lighter, and cheaper QPUs that can be networked together to form a larger computer. “If we want to have a scalable quantum computer, we have to modularize it, regardless of the physical qubit architecture we use.” must be networked together.
The roadmap includes future development of multi-core QPUs by using multiple compute zones that can scale to hundreds of physical qubits. The roadmap also anticipates networking multi-core QPUs with other his QPUs to form more powerful quantum machines.
What Entangled Networks Brings to the Table
Entangled Network’s MultiQopt product provides quantum circuit optimization for modular system architectures such as that being developed by IonQ. Interconnecting a cluster of QPUs is more than just building a fiber network and connecting devices. Unlike traditional clusters, quantum data cannot be cloned due to the laws of quantum mechanics. As such, special hardware, algorithms, and programming must be used to handle configuration.
Entangled Networks’ multicore technology and engineering team provides:
- Hardware consisting of light concentrators and network fabric switches
- Software including algorithm library, optimization controller, and real-time network control
- networking expertise
IonQ President and CEO Peter Chapman summarized the impact of the Entangled Networks acquisition on me:
“With today’s acquisition of Entangled Networks, IonQ is one step closer to developing quantum networks capable of tackling the most complex problems of today and tomorrow. However, the goal of our quantum network is to entangle large-scale qubits leading to larger and more powerful systems used for computation. We are laying the groundwork for the adoption of
summary
Over the next few years, IonQ plans to integrate the acquired technology into quantum computer architectures. Full-scale modular connectivity provides connectivity between any qubit in the system, distributed across any number of QPUs. A highly scalable architecture must be powerful enough to run large-scale and complex quantum computing problems, regardless of the structure of the problem.
Please note that IonQ has an in-house capability to develop the technology necessary to network QPUs. Over the past decade, Dr. Kim, IonQ co-founder and chief his scientist Dr. Christopher Monroe, and others needed to network quantum computers using high-bandwidth connections between QPU devices. technology has been studied.
But acquiring Entangled Networks was a better and more efficient alternative to continuing to develop the technology in-house. Not only has IonQ acquired proven networking technology, it has also significantly reduced development costs and significantly exceeded its original roadmap timeline. IonQ currently plans to demonstrate a network between two quantum computers later this year.
Networking technology is the cornerstone of IonQ’s scaling goals and future success. The acquisition of Entangled Networks is a great move by IonQ as it provides the necessary expertise in quantum architecture as well as software and hardware IP.
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