Chip giant Intel is dealing with challenges of current chip shortages and increased competition to its dominant position in PC and servers, but its researchers have their minds fully on the future.
A team within Intel Labs announced a new cryogenic control chip — named Horse Ridge — that is intended to boost the development of quantum computing systems. Quantum computers are a new way of computing that relies on properties of quantum mechanics that enable systems to crunch calculations quicker than the most advanced supercomputers.
For example, earlier this fall, Google touted a breakthrough in its quantum computing research that saw a system perform a math calculation in 3 minutes and 20 seconds that it would take the largest supercomputer at least 10,000 years to complete.
Traditional chips encode data into binary digits, ones and zeros. But, quantum computing uses qubits, which use the peculiar characteristic of quantum mechanics that allows qubits to be in two states of being at once. So, instead of information being a one or zero, a qubit can be a one and zero simultaneously. This means more powerful calculation capabilities.
Once quantum computing becomes a practical application it will mean huge shifts in artificial intelligence capabilities and render lots of existing security encryption vulnerable.
However, Intel researchers are quick to point out that quantum computing systems are still very early in development. With Horse Ridge, they hope to help speed some of that up.
For quantum computing to work the system qubits must be kept incredibly cold — just above absolute zero in a cryogenic case. Researchers are using existing control systems and the result is a complex system of cables and connects that are outside the cryogenic case to control the qubits.
With Horse Ridge those controls are simplified and brought closer to the computing system using microwave pulses to manipulate the qubits, the company said in a release.
This development isn’t major shift in qubit research that has been celebrated and debated by companies like Google and IBM, but it is just as important, argues Intel’s Jim Clarke, director of the Quantum Hardware Research group.
“Researchers have focused extensively on qubit fabrication, building test chips that demonstrate the exponential power of a small number of entangled qubits. This work demonstrates the theory and potential of quantum computing — but not our ability to manufacture a practical system,” wrote Clarke, who is based at Intel’s Oregon operations.
“In my view, a fundamental component in the quantum stack is being overlooked. There is not enough research being done to advance the control and interconnect system required to effectively operate large-scale quantum systems. Today, every qubit is individually controlled. It is a brute-force approach that will not scale to the many qubits needed to change the world.”
Horse Ridge, which is named for a region in Eastern Deschutes County that sees some of Oregon’s coldest temperatures, is meant to address that. As a result, Clarke and team hope to show scalable quantum computing.
The control chip was developed in conjunction with QuTech, a partnership between Delft University of Technology and the Dutch applied research organization TNO.