Quantum computing promises society-changing breakthroughs in drug development and tackling climate change, and on an unassuming English high street, the race to unleash the latest tech revolution is gathering pace.
Steve Brierley, founder of Cambridge-based Riverlane, predicts that the technology will have its “Sputnik” breakthrough within years. “Quantum computing is not going to be just slightly better than the previous computer; it’s going to be a huge step forward,” he said. Riverlane produces the world’s first dedicated quantum decoder chip, which detects and corrects the errors currently holding the technology back.
John Martinis, former quantum computing lead at Google Quantum AI, explained, “Building devices that live up to the technology’s incredible promise requires a massive step change in scale and reliability, and that requires reliable error correction schemes.”
Riverlane’s confidence in their work and the sector was underscored on Tuesday when the company announced it had raised $75 million in Series C funding, typically the last round of venture capital financing prior to an initial public offering. “Over the next two to three years, we’ll be able to get to systems that can support a million error-free operations,” said Earl Campbell, vice president of quantum science at Riverlane. This is the threshold where a quantum computer should be able to perform certain tasks better than conventional computers, he added.
Quantum computers excel at simulating other quantum systems, Brierley explained, meaning they can simulate interactions between particles, atoms, and molecules. This capability could lead to revolutionary medicines and promises significant efficiency improvements in fertilizer production, transforming an industry responsible for around two percent of global CO2 emissions. Additionally, it paves the way for much more efficient batteries, a crucial tool in the fight against climate change.
The amount of information that quantum computers can harness increases exponentially when the machine is scaled up, compared with conventional computers. “I think most people are more familiar with exponential after Covid, so we know how quickly something that’s exponential can spread,” said Campbell inside Riverlane’s testing lab, a den of oscilloscopes and chipboards.
In traditional computers, data is stored in bits, with each bit taking a value of 0 or 1. Quantum bits, or ‘qubits,’ are more like dimmer switches, able to store all values between 0 and 1, representing a spectrum of values. However, the strangeness of quantum behavior means values must be read many times and processed by complex algorithms, requiring “exquisite control” of the qubits. Qubits are also highly susceptible to errors generated by noise, and solving this problem is the “key to unlocking useful quantum computing,” Brierley said.
Tech giants like Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon are investing heavily in generating qubits and reducing errors, either by shielding the hardware or combining qubits and using algorithms to detect and correct mistakes. “This is like the way an SSD (memory) card works. It’s built out of faulty components with active error correction on top,” Brierley explained. All of this increases the number of components required and the time taken to execute individual operations. “We definitely won’t be using quantum computers to send email,” Brierley noted.
While today’s quantum computers can only perform around 1,000 operations before being overwhelmed by errors, the quality of the actual components has “got to the point where the physical qubits are good enough,” said Brierley. “So this is a super exciting time. The challenge now is to scale up and add error correction into the systems,” he added.
Quantum computing’s potential to crack all existing cryptography and create potent new materials is spurring regulators into action. “There’s definitely a scrambling to understand what’s coming next in technology. It’s really important that we learn the lessons from AI, to not be surprised by the technology and think early about what those implications are going to be,” said Brierley. “I think there will ultimately be regulation around quantum computing, because it’s such an important technology. And I think this is a technology where no government wants to come second.Quantum
