HRL Laboratories has unveiled a silicon quantum processor featuring a cryogenic CMOS controller capable of performing real-time error correction without the need for external electronics, as reported in Nature.
The system architecture consists of an 18-qubit chip, a controller, and a superconducting ribbon cable.
Source: Nature.In this setup, the external racks of control electronics have been replaced by a CMOS chip located directly inside the cryostat. Once initialized, it runs its program independently without further external intervention. The cable transmits hundreds of control signals and, according to the authors, minimizes heat transfer to the colder section housing the qubits.
HRL states that the processor features a three-row array of 54 interconnected quantum dots that can be configured into 18 exchange-only qubits. The authors report that control errors were ten times lower than previous demonstrations for this type of qubit, with the duration of a single operation being less than a microsecond.
The system also demonstrated approximately five times error suppression as the number of qubits increased in the quantum repetition code mode. HRL claims this is the first demonstration where error correction was fully performed by the cryogenic controller without any room-temperature electronics involved.
"The technologies that enabled the creation of traditional computing systems were not only the highest performing but also could be produced cheaply and at scale. We believe quantum computing will follow a similar path," said HRL President and CEO Rob Vasquez.
In June, IBM acquired the company, which was previously jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors.
Additionally, in July, researchers from Amazon Web Services, Nvidia, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and NASA proposed a model to evaluate the interaction between quantum processors and classical supercomputers.