Quantum Computing - Enter Quantinuum!

Honeywell and quantum software company Cambridge Quantum have finalized a transaction in which Honeywell's Quantum Solutions branch was split off and combined with Cambridge Quantum to become Quantinuum. 

The agreement, which was revealed around six months ago, helped to stoke interest in quantum-related investment, IPOs, and acquisitions. 

We'll have to wait and watch what happens once Honeywell sends Quantinuum out into the world with up to $300 million in cash. 

Q-CTRL, a company that focuses on quantum computing control and software solutions, has announced a $25 million fundraising round led by Airbus Ventures and other investors. 

Airbus' involvement is unsurprising, given the aerospace and military industries provide some near-term commercial prospects for quantum computing applications. 

Quantum spin liquids are a type of magnet matter with spinning electrons that, when frozen, becomes a "fluctuating" solid, according to a team of Harvard-led researchers. 

They appear to have nothing to do with liquid as we know it, but are a form of magnet matter with spinning electrons that, when frozen, becomes a "fluctuating" solid. 

This might lead to more durable qubits. 

This week, Google AI highlighted a recent experiment with time crystals. 

A time crystal includes layers of atoms in an oscillating pattern "made in time," while seeming like something comic book heroes could use to travel around the multiverse. 

Google's Sycamore quantum processor was used to prove that these time crystals may be seen. 

According to a blog post, "observing a time crystal reveals how quantum computers might be utilized to examine unique physical phenomena that have perplexed scientists for years." 

"Moving from theory to observation is a fundamental step that forms the basis of each scientific breakthrough. 

This kind of research opens the door to a slew of new experiments, not only in physics, but potentially in a variety of other domains as well..." 

Finland has officially entered the space race for quantum computing. 

Quantum computing start-up and Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre The country's first operational 5-qubit quantum computer, according to IQM, is up and running. 

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read more about Quantum Computing here.

Open Source Quantum Computing Software SDK

Cambridge Quantum has released the newest edition of their hardware-agnostic quantum software development kit, TKET (pronounced "ticket"), as an open source project. 

Open-sourcing provides for more code openness, faster problem reporting, and more sophisticated integrations. 

Under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, members of the quantum software community will be free to contribute their own contributions or draw inspiration and build their own enhancements.

Extensions on the pytket-extensions GitHub repository: https://github.com/CQCL/pytket-extensions

Documentation: https://cqcl.github.io/pytket/build/html/index.html

Extension Documentation: https://cqcl.github.io/pytket/build/html/extensions/index.html

The move comes as the quantum computing industry shifts its focus away from the race to build high-qubit computers and toward the software that will be required to program these systems and set them to work on particular tasks. 

Christian Bauer, Theory Group Leader and PI of Quantum Computing for the Physics Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, identified software and the overall challenge of programming quantum computers as an issue that is currently preventing the sector from reaching its full potential during a presentation at Questex's Sensors Converge event last week. 

Companies like Classiq and Quantum Machines have lately brought this problem to light. 

In a statement, Cambridge Quantum stated, 

"Making all the source code accessible to the community enables faster integration, modification, and problem tracking from all users." 

“Under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, any members of the quantum software community will be free to make their own contributions and create their own modifications to the codebase.” 

TKET is also interoperable with other quantum languages such as Qiskit, Cirq, Q#, and others through extension modules, according to the firm. 

Cambridge seems to be on track to play a larger role in this development. 

Honeywell stated in June that it will combine its quantum computing business with Cambridge Quantum, a firm in which it already had a stake, and spend an additional $270 million to $300 million in the spin-off that would emerge. 

The transaction is anticipated to be completed in the fourth quarter. 

“We originally announced that TKET will be accessible on a ‘open-access' basis earlier this year, with a promise to become completely open-sourced by the end of 2021,” Cambridge Quantum CEO Ilyas Khan said in a statement on the open source availability. 

In the meanwhile, he added, the company's developer community has grown at a "amazing" rate. 

“Minimizing gate count and execution time are extremely essential in this Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) era,” said Ross Duncan, CQ's Head of Software. 

TKET blends high-level hardware-agnostic quantum circuit optimisation with target-specific compilation steps for the quantum device of choice. 

This allows users of quantum computing to travel easily across platforms while retaining excellent performance. 

Users should concentrate on creating quantum applications rather than changing code to accommodate the quirks of certain hardware. 

At the same time, we assist quantum computing hardware manufacturers in ensuring that their processors provide the highest possible performance.

About Cambridge Quantum Computing

Founded in 2014 and backed by some of the world’s leading quantum computing companies, CQC is a global leader in quantum software and quantum algorithms, enabling clients to achieve the most out of rapidly evolving quantum computing hardware. CQC has offices in the UK, USA and Japan. 

For more information, visit CQC at http://www.cambridgequantum.com 

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You may also want to read more about Quantum Computing here.