dougfinke

enQase, a U.S. based spin-off of Qnu Labs has announced a new quantum safe security solution. Their solution leverages several different quantum cybersecurity solutions including PQC (Post Quantum Cryptography), QKD (Quantum Key Distribution), dQKD (Digital Quantum Key Distribution), and QRNG (Quantum Random Number Generation). The QRNG portion uses hardware provided by Qnu Labs. The dQKD is a technology they have developed that combines elements of the PQC and QKD protocols. The company provides flexible options for deployment and can offer a variety of different options including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), perpetual licensing and on-premises hardware solutions through a variety of transmission [...]

IonQ has announced its Q4 and full year 2024 financial results. A quick summary of some key financial metrics comparing Q4 2024 versus Q3 2024 and the year ago quarter of Q4 2023 as well as a comparison of full year 2024 versus 2023 is shown in the chart below. Company executives called 2024 IonQ's best year ever and believes that 2025 will be a great year for them too. The company beat their previous revenue expectations for both Q4 and the full year 2024. They also slightly beat their previous expectations for full year 2024 books. Although the company's 2024 net [...]

Bringing Quantum Science to Life On Stage Overview In this episode of The Quantum Spin by HKA, host Veronica Combs interviews Nancy Kawalek, a Professor and Distinguished Fellow in the Arts, Science, and Technology at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. Nancy shares her journey from a theater performer in New York to a professor integrating arts and science at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Chicago. They discuss the inception and evolution of STAGE, an initiative that combines arts and science to produce theater, films, and games. Highlighting projects such as “Curiosity” and the Quantum Casino, [...]

Figure 1 - Microsoft's Eight Qubit Majorana 1 Device. Credit: Microsoft Introduction After almost 20 years of development, Microsoft has developed a controllable topological qubit module design that they intend on scaling up very quickly to produce a 1 million qubit error corrected quantum computer within a few years. In theory, a topological qubit could provide the optimal type of qubit because it combines three desirable properties together without requiring tradeoffs: Reliability, Speed, and Size. In practice, the topological qubit has been very difficult to build because it depends on leveraging Majorana zero modes (MZMs) which hitherto was only a theoretical [...]

U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Steve Daines (R-MT) have introduced this bill in the 119th U.S. Congress to advance the funding for quantum technology research, development, workforce development, demonstration, and commercialization in the United States. Additional cosponsors of this bipartisan bill include U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Todd Young (R-IN). The proposed funding would exceed $2.5 billion for U.S. fiscal years 2026-2030. Key provisions of the bill would include the following: Key Provisions: Funding Authorization: Proposes over $2.5 billion in funding for quantum research and development over the next five years, significantly exceeding [...]

Topology of Rigetti's Ankaa-3 Processor In December we reported that Rigetti had made available its latest 82 qubit processor called Ankaa-3 on its own Quantum Cloud Services Platform (QCS). Now AWS has announced this processor is also now available through its Amazon Braket service. The Ankaa-3 provides improved qate fidelity, fast operation, and other features compared to Rigetti's previous machines. Additional information about Rigetti's processor availability on Braket is available here. February 15, 2025

Recent news items published within the last 6 months on quantum computing developments are listed below. Click on the hyperlinked item to go to the press release or news article for more details. For older news items published in 2024 click here, for 2023 click here, for 2022 click here, for 2021 click here, for 2020 click here, for 2019 click here, for 2018 click here, and for items published in 2015-2017, click here. March 14, 2025South Korea Establishes Quantum Strategy Committee and Announces Funding Initiatives to Boost Quantum IndustryThe South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) has launched the Quantum Strategy Committee, a high-level public-private body tasked with overseeing national [...]

Memory and Circuit Simulations of a [[49,9,4]] SHYPS Code Photonic Inc. has announced a significant breakthrough in quantum computing with the introduction of a new error correction code set in the Quantum Low Density Parity Check (QLDPC) family. These new codes, called SHYPS codes, can efficiently perform both quantum computation and error correction, using significantly fewer quantum bits (qubits) compared to traditional surface code approaches. This advancement could greatly accelerate the timeline to practical quantum computing. QLDPC codes, introduced 20 years ago, offered a promising alternative to surface codes but required a breakthrough to perform quantum logic efficiently. Photonic's new paper, [...]

by Doug Finke A few weeks ago, the Chinese organization known as DeepSeek surprised the AI community by releasing its first free chatbot app, based on the DeepSeek-R1 model with capabilities that are in the same ballpark as those of ChatGPT and other chatbots with a training cost that was a fraction of the cost it has taken to train other AI models at a claimed $5.8 million. The team used fewer and less advanced NVIDIA chips than the other models but compensated for this by using innovative techniques such as using 8 bit instead of 32 bit tokens, a mixture-of-experts architecture, reinforcement [...]

Following a comprehensive technical analysis and validation, The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Microsoft and PsiQuantum for the Validation and Co-Design stage of the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program, part of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). This initiative aims to determine if a utility-scale quantum computer can be built faster than current predictions, achieving cost-effective operation by 2033. The US2QC program, originally announced in January 2023, was defined to progress in three stages. PsiQuantum and Microsoft have made it through the first two stages and are now entering the final stage. See our previous articles [...]