09/15/2024 What I Read Last Week
#DigitalInfrastructure news
Weekly Edition of curated news about Digital Infrastructure
At Quantum World Congress last week Jay Lowell (Boeing) announced Q4S: The World’s first quantum entanglement swapping demonstration aboard a satellite. In this exclusive from The Quantum Insider Dr. Lowell says that Q4S will explore how quantum networks can function over long distances, and that this mission is a step toward revolutionizing — and commercializing — quantum communication and timing synchronization, unlocking secure data transmission, national security applications and improved scientific collaborations.
[Link] Awesome Data Center Frontier article about Oracle, from their conference last week: Oracle Hits Every Major Cloud via AWS, Reveals Plans for Gigawatt Triple SMR Data Center. Larry Ellison was reported to say - First, Oracle now has over 160 public and private Oracle data centers. Second, the scale of these facilities is so cool! Some are as small as just a few kW. Others are as big as 800MW. Actually we’re working on even bigger gigawatt data centers already.
[Link] Switch announced that it has closed on its $4.25 billion sustainability-linked Borrowing Base Facility (the “BBF”) and upsized its Revolving Credit Facility to $770 million. Proceeds from the BBF, which consists of a $3.5 billion revolving credit facility and $750 million term loan, will primarily be used to fund the development of new projects totaling over $5 billion of total contract value across four campuses.
[Link] Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reports the owners of Switch are exploring an initial public offering of the data center operator that could value it at about $40 billion, including debt. DigitalBridge, alongside IFM Investors, took Switch private in an $11 billion deal in December 2022.
[Link] Sphere 3D has partnered with Simple Mining LLC to engineer, develop, and operate a 12.5 MW site in Iowa.
[Link] DataBank announced the development of a 480MW data center campus on 292 acres of land in Red Oak, Texas. The campus will accommodate up to eight, 2-story data centers of 425,000 gross square feet, each totaling as much as 3.4M square feet.
[Link] Transistor-like Qubits Hit Key Benchmark. CMOS-compatible quantum computers can now benefit from error correction. ****A team in Australia has recently demonstrated a key advance in metal-oxide-semiconductor-based (or MOS-based) quantum computers. They showed that their two-qubit gates—logical operations that involve more than one quantum bit, or qubit—perform without errors 99 percent of the time.
There was a section of that last IEEE Spectrum article that was a useful trigger for me:
There are many contending platforms in the race to build a useful quantum computer. IBM, Google and others are building their machines out of superconducting qubits. Quantinuum and IonQ use individual trapped ions. QuEra and Atom Computing use neutrally-charged atoms. Xanadu and PsiQuantum are betting on photons. The list goes on.
Part of learning about Quantum Computing - is trying to figure out all of the different architectures and ways that the leading quantum computers work. I tweaked the quoted section from the article, and asked AI to help me understand, and it did…. here is what it said:
1. Superconducting Qubits (IBM, Google, others)
How it works: Superconducting qubits are made using circuits that allow electricity to flow without resistance when cooled to very low temperatures (close to absolute zero). These circuits are designed to create qubits, which can be in a superposition of both 0 and 1 states.
Technology used: The circuits are built on microchips and operated inside dilution refrigerators that cool the circuits down to near absolute zero. Microwave signals are used to control the qubits and perform operations.
Challenges: It requires extremely cold environments and very precise control, but this approach is well-studied and scalable, which is why companies like IBM and Google are investing in it.
2. Trapped Ion Qubits (Quantinuum, IonQ)
How it works: Trapped ion quantum computers use individual ions (charged atoms) that are held in place using electromagnetic fields. Lasers are used to manipulate the quantum state of these ions, allowing them to perform quantum operations.
Technology used: The ions are trapped in vacuum chambers using electric and magnetic fields, and lasers are used to cool the ions and manipulate their states.
Challenges: This method offers high precision and long qubit lifetimes but scaling the system to handle more qubits is difficult due to the complexity of trapping and controlling many ions simultaneously.
3. Neutral Atom Qubits (QuEra, Atom Computing)
How it works: Neutral atom quantum computers use atoms that have no electrical charge, unlike trapped ions. These atoms are manipulated using optical tweezers (focused beams of light) and other laser-based techniques to control their positions and states.
Technology used: The atoms are held in place using arrays of laser beams, and their quantum states are manipulated using lasers or magnetic fields. This allows for flexible control over the qubits and the possibility of scaling to larger systems.
Challenges: While neutral atoms offer more flexibility and potentially easier scaling, the control over each individual atom needs to be highly precise.
4. Photonic Qubits (Xanadu, PsiQuantum)
How it works: Photonic quantum computers use particles of light (photons) as qubits. These photons are generated and manipulated using optical components like mirrors, beamsplitters, and detectors to perform quantum computations.
Technology used: Photonic qubits are sent through optical circuits made of fiber optics, lenses, and detectors, where operations are performed by interfering and detecting the photons. This method doesn’t require extremely low temperatures like superconducting qubits.
Challenges: While photonics allows for easy transmission of qubits over long distances and works at room temperature, it can be challenging to generate and detect photons reliably and to maintain the necessary quantum coherence.
Summary of Differences
Superconducting qubits: Requires very cold temperatures and uses electrical circuits.
Trapped ions: Uses individual ions held by electromagnetic fields and controlled by lasers.
Neutral atoms: Uses atoms held by light, with high flexibility in control and scalability.
Photonic qubits: Uses light particles (photons) and optical components, operating at room temperature.
Each method has its advantages and challenges in terms of precision, scalability, and practicality. The race to develop a reliable quantum computer involves exploring these different technologies to see which can deliver the best results.
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