SEEQC made waves in the quantum computing industry with our recent announcements. Last week we unveiled the introduction of our superconducting digital Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) chips that form the basis of a scalable quantum computer. In addition, we revealed SEEQC System Red, a full-stack reference quantum computer running over the cloud. SEEQC's recent breakthroughs are significant because they represent a major step forward in the development of practical quantum computers.
SEEQC is the first company to produce all-digital superconducting chips for control, readout and multiplexing of a quantum computer. Additionally, SEEQC’s System Red is from one of only eight companies in the world to have produced such a quantum computer.
Fully Digital Chips for Full-Stack Quantum Computers
SEEQC manufactured its digital SFQ chips in the company’s world-class commercial multilayer superconductive chip foundry and milliKelvin testing center in Elmsford, N.Y. in concert with its design and testing teams in London and Naples. Our chips are capable of running all core qubit controller functions of a quantum computer at the same cryogenic temperature as the qubits. The chips are also fully integrated with qubits— a critical milestone in building scalable error-corrected quantum computers and data centers.
SEEQC’s digital chip technology utilizes energy-efficient superconducting SFQ logic, operating at speeds up to 40 GHz, to implement classical qubit control, measurement, multiplexing and data processing. The use of SEEQC’s chips will significantly reduce quantum computer cost and complexity by orders of magnitude by eliminating the need for nearly all racks of expensive room-temperature electronics and complex wiring needed to interconnect to the qubit chips.
Multiplexing Leads to Scalability
SEEQC’s scalable SFQ-based computing architecture incorporates digital multiplexing, solving a critical input/output issue. The multiplexing circuits send multiple signals over a single line, greatly reducing cost and complexity, particularly for large-scale quantum systems in data centers. In contrast, existing quantum computers require up to 3 cables per qubit, carrying sensitive analog signals that limit the ability for high-ratio multiplexing in large-scale systems. As a result, millions of cables are in need to scale such systems.
Comparatively, SEEQC has successfully tested its digital multiplexing technology which can control an 8 qubit module with just 2 wires, and versions that control up to 16 qubits are currently in fabrication, vastly reducing capital costs and simplifying the underlying complexity of a quantum computer.
“Instead of trying to scale quantum computing systems based on existing prototype designs, we decided to start from scratch,” said Dr. Oleg Mukhanov, SEEQC’s CTO and co-founder, “developing a wholly new architecture based on Single Flux Quantum chips that will enable us to build the class of quantum computer necessary for fault-tolerant quantum computers. Only by incorporating all functionality within high-performance chips will we be able to scale energy efficient quantum systems to data center requirements.”
SEEQC System Red: Quantum Computing Reference System
SEEQC Red is the company’s first-generation reference class quantum computer system. The architecture of SEEQC Red mimics current-generation superconductor quantum computing systems with conventional room temperature analog control and readout enabling the company to perform direct A-B comparisons with its digital SFQ chip-based next-generation quantum computer. With SEEQC Red, the company has achieved fast average 2-qubit gate speeds of 39ns and average gate fidelities of 98.4% which are among the best of publicly available quantum systems operating over the cloud.
“When compared to the universal quantum computing systems available over the cloud, our system shows up to four times lower error rates over competitive systems,” said Matthew Hutchings, co-founder, and chief product officer at SEEQC. “SEEQC Red offers the fastest native two-qubit gates over any system available on publicly available quantum cloud services. While other systems focus on larger numbers of qubits, SEEQC’s system is focused on quality and speed. It has achieved gate speeds up to 10 times faster than competitors, all while offering gate fidelities competitive to the most advanced systems available on currently available quantum cloud platforms.”
SEEQC Red utilizes the company’s proprietary quantum computing platform incorporating cloud portal, software, and firmware packages. This platform allows users to access this reference system to run any universal application or algorithm.
SEEQC Partnerships Lead to Scalable Application-Specific Designs
SEEQC plans to bring the first commercially-scalable, application-specific quantum computing systems to market. Most existing quantum systems are not built with industry-specific applications in mind. SEEQC is working with its partner customers to make its system application-specific, lowering the system requirements to solve critical problems in industries like industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and materials science, and to ensure that such systems are capable of scaling to the complexity of the problems of large enterprises.
SEEQC has already established partnerships with major global industrial companies, including Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and recently announced its newest partnership with BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany.
“SEEQC’s mission is to deliver scalable, energy-efficient quantum computing for data centers and our approach is through the digital chip-scale integration of key functions like readout, control, multiplexing, error correction, and classical data processing. The two major technology advancements we’ve announced represent important progress in this mission across the entire quantum computing industry”, said John Levy, co-founder, and CEO at SEEQC.
“Through the balance of 2023, we look forward to replacing conventional room temperature electronics with our digital SFQ chips in our next generation SEEQC quantum computers which will also be a major step in our work towards achieving scalable, energy-efficient quantum systems capable of supporting chip-based error correction.”