Insider Brief:
- Alice & Bob released a white paper and roadmap detailing its five-step plan to deliver a universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2030, leveraging cat qubit technology to achieve high-fidelity logical qubits with fewer resources.
- The roadmap milestones include mastering cat qubits, developing error-corrected logical qubits, demonstrating fault-tolerant quantum computing, enabling universal quantum algorithms, and achieving practical quantum advantage in industrial applications.
- Alice & Bob’s cat qubits actively stabilize against errors, reducing error correction complexity and producing “6-nines” logical qubits with 99.9999% fidelity.
- The white paper highlights quantum computing’s potential to impact industries like finance, healthcare, and cybersecurity, while making the technology accessible to a broader audience of engineers and business leaders.
PRESS RELEASE — Alice & Bob has released a white paper and a five-year roadmap, outlining its path to delivering a universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2030. According to the release, the company’s unique approach incorporates cat qubit technology for the development of high-fidelity logical qubits that use notably fewer resources compared to other methods.
This white paper, titled “THINK INSIDE THE BOX: QUANTUM COMPUTING WITH CAT QUBITS,” details how Alice & Bob’s advancements intend to overcome critical challenges in quantum error correction. The roadmap defines five key milestones, each a step in the progression toward achieving practical and useful quantum advantage.
The Map To Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing
- Mastering the Cat Qubit: Completed in 2024 with the Boson chip series, this milestone established a stable, reproducible cat qubit capable of storing quantum information while resisting bit-flip errors. Bit-flip errors occur when a quantum bit (qubit) spontaneously changes its state, one of the most common issues in quantum systems. According to the release, Alice & Bob’s cat qubits set a record for bit-flip protection, effectively eliminating this error type.
- Building a Logical Qubit: You are here — currently under development, the Helium chip series is focused on creating error-corrected logical qubits that operate below the error-correction threshold. Logical qubits are composite units made from multiple physical qubits, with error correction enabling their use in scalable quantum algorithms.
- Demonstrating Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing: The Lithium chip series will enable Alice & Bob to scale multi-logical-qubit systems and demonstrate the first error-corrected logical gate, an important component for reliable quantum computation.
- Unlocking Universal Quantum Computing: With the Beryllium chip series, the company plans to implement a universal set of logical gates using “magic state factories” and live error correction. This capability would allow the execution of any quantum algorithm, a step towards full programmability.
- Delivering Useful Quantum Computing: By 2030, Alice & Bob plan to unveil the Graphene chip series, featuring 100 high-fidelity logical qubits. According to the release, this system will be capable of demonstrating quantum advantage in early industrial use cases and integrating with high-performance computing facilities.
A Practical Approach to Quantum Error Correction
Achieving fault-tolerant quantum computing requires overcoming errors inherent in quantum systems. As highlighted in the release, conventional error correction scales inefficiently, with resource demands growing quadratically as complexity increases. Alice & Bob’s cat qubits address this bottleneck by actively stabilizing qubits against external errors.
According to the white paper, the cat qubits reduce error correction from a two-dimensional problem to a one-dimensional problem, thereby enhancing scalability. The result is what the company calls a “6-nines” logical qubit, offering 99.9999% fidelity. This efficiency means fewer resources are needed to produce high-quality logical qubits compared to alternative approaches.
“Quantum computing should be a tool for solving useful problems in science and industry,” said Théau Peronnin, CEO and co-founder of Alice & Bob. “This white paper shows how Alice & Bob’s cat qubits can bring that vision to life in a practical way by the decade’s end.”
Unlocking Real-World Impact for Industry and Science
Alice & Bob’s roadmap highlights the potential of quantum computing for applications in fields such as finance, healthcare, and cybersecurity. Their technology promises to address problems beyond the reach of classical computers, including complex simulations, machine learning, and material science.
“Our roadmap lays out a clear path to solving quantum’s toughest engineering challenges,” said Raphael Lescanne, CTO and co-founder of Alice & Bob. “Quantum computing can seem opaque, but it shouldn’t be. This white paper makes our technology and roadmap accessible for engineers, business leaders, and tech enthusiasts alike.”
