Insider Brief
- QC Design provides quantum computer manufacturers with comprehensive roadmaps to commercially viable systems.
- The company hopes by licensing its fault-tolerant architectures, it is empowering quantum computer manufacturers to usher in a next generation of hardware.
- Critical Quote: “In the same way that ARM’s RISC architectures revolutionized mobile computing by providing a more efficient and scalable platform, our proprietary fault-tolerant quantum architectures will take quantum computing to the next level.” — Martin B. Plenio, co-founder of QC Design
PRESS RELEASE — By licensing its fault-tolerant architectures, start-up QC Design is empowering quantum computer manufacturers to usher in a next generation of hardware, surpassing limitations of current systems. Leveraging its expertise in hardware, software and simulation tools, QC Design provides quantum computer manufacturers with comprehensive roadmaps to commercially viable systems.
“Despite significant progress in quantum computer development, the current hardware’s frequent computational errors render it unsuitable for commercial use – and many manufacturers lack a clear plan and dedicated resources to address this issue,” explains Alexander von Humboldt Professor Martin B. Plenio, co-founder of QC Design. “In the same way that ARM’s RISC architectures revolutionized mobile computing by providing a more efficient and scalable platform, our proprietary fault-tolerant quantum architectures will take quantum computing to the next level. We enable hardware manufacturers to get to fault tolerance, the next generation of quantum computing.”
From NISQ systems to quantum computing 2.0
The current landscape of quantum computing is dominated by NISQ systems, characterized by limited qubit counts, susceptibility to errors and noise, absence of fault tolerance, and scalability challenges. Even the most powerful quantum systems can only run hundreds of gates, which is far from the millions of gates required for unlocking the full potential of quantum computing. Only with the right error-correcting architectures can imperfect hardware run the millions of gates needed for revolutionizing drug development, fertilizer manufacture and carbon capture, and for driving scientific breakthroughs.
Experts concur that the realization of fault-tolerant systems capable of reliably handling sophisticated breakthrough applications necessitates millions of physical qubits, enabling the creation of sufficiently logical qubits through error detection and correction mechanisms. However, most successful quantum computer manufacturers are currently lacking scalable architectures for manufacturing fault-tolerant systems. Developing these architectures not only requires a team uniquely skilled in both hardware engineering and fault-tolerance but also needs sophisticated software tools that can take years to build and months to deploy effectively.
Enabling an entire industry, with first architectures already developed
QC Design has already developed proprietary architectures for photonics and spin qubits, two of the leading platforms for manufacturing quantum computers.
“These architectures enable reliable quantum computing on quantum chips despite inevitable hardware imperfections such as losses, crosstalk and fabrication errors. More generally, licenses to our architectures give hardware manufacturers the fastest path to fault tolerance and allow them to do more with the same hardware,” explains Dr. Ish Dhand, CEO and co-founder of QC Design. “This saves hardware development effort for our customers, helps them avoid missteps, and allows them to beat the incumbents.”
Building fault-tolerant architectures requires a team with a unique combination of skills. At QC Design, the team consists of some of the world’s top experts in various fields, including fault tolerance theory, engineering, and hardware. With a wealth of experience totaling over 100 years in quantum technologies, gained from top universities and start-ups, QC Design’s team is well-equipped to tackle the challenges of developing fault-tolerant quantum systems.
“Fault tolerance is crucial for the next generation of quantum computers.” states Dr. Lise Rechsteiner, General Partner at Vsquared Ventures, QC Design’s lead investor. “As the driving force behind fault-tolerant architectures in quantum computing, QC Design has the potential to propel the entire industry forward into the next generation, and emerge as a major success story.”
Several leading quantum computing start-ups have already expressed interest in licensing architectures for next-gen quantum computers from QC Design to further develop their own hardware. QC Design is not only launching its licensing offering but is also releasing Plaquette, a powerful fault tolerance design tool, as open-source software, thereby making it widely available to the quantum computing community.
About QC Design: Established in 2021, QC Design was co-founded by Ish Dhand, a seasoned quantum computing researcher and former architecture team lead at Xanadu, along with Martin B. Plenio, Alexander von Humboldt Professor and Director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Ulm with over 30 years of experience in quantum technologies. With a dedicated team of over 10 top experts, QC Design is driving advancements in fault-tolerant architectures and state-of-the-art simulation and design tools. Supported by German deep tech VC Vsquared Ventures, quantum-technologies focussed VC Quantonation, and Salvia GmbH a first generation single Family Office founded by Helmut Jeggle, as well as the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, QC Design is shaping the future of quantum computing.
