One activity that investors, governments, and quantum hardware companies call upon Global Quantum Intelligence (GQI) frequently to do is to perform a due diligence assessment of a quantum processor development roadmap. In order to ensure a complete and consistent approach, GQI has developed a few frameworks that we use on all these projects and we would like to share these frameworks in this article.
Our first phase in these analyses is a technical assessment. One of the frameworks we use in the technical assessment is the GQI Hardware Stack which describes all the necessary pieces of technology that will be needed in an operational quantum computer. The second is a framework for rating the progress or projected progress of each stage. The GQI Hardware Stack and rating scale we use are shown in the charts below.
We can then combine these two into to create a color coded chart that provides the entire picture. In the chart, the horizontal axis can show either how an individual hardware provider expects to progress as their roadmap advances or it can be used to compare one hardware provider versus the other. This chart is a good way of showing the status of each element and which technical challenges a company needs to overcome in order to be successful. The hypothetical chart below shows how this might look.
As quantum processor technology matures, other factors including Cost, Footprint, Power Demand, and Logical Cycle Time will become more important and become key selection criteria for end users deciding which quantum computer to use. There may be multiple quantum solutions that are good enough to do the job. So these factors, which we call Secondary Competitive Differentiators will become more important. It is important to look at these factors in their entirety. To do that we have developed another rating scale for those factors as shown below.
To examine these factors together we use a Radar chart that can plot all the factors on one chart. Each factor is plotted on a separate axis and in our implementation the smaller the total area of the figure, the better it is. The hypothetical chart below shows how this might look.
GQI has outstanding visibility into the technical challenges in developing commercially useful quantum computers as well as the progress being made worldwide by all the many organizations pursuing their different technical path to reach this goal. This methodology has proven very successful for us and provides an excellent way for GQI’s clients to understand where a particular quantum processor development stands. If you would like to know more, you can contact info@global-qi.com to learn more about how we use these frameworks for our evaluations.
August 24, 2024
