IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) are collaborating to design a connected network of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, targeted by early 2030s.
The companies said that within five years, the two will aim to demonstrate the first proof-of-concept for a network that combines individual, large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, enabling them to work together to run computations over tens to hundreds of thousands of qubits.
This network would allow problems to be run with potentially trillions of quantum gates, the fundamental entangling operations required for quantum applications such as massive optimization problems or the design of complex materials and medicines, according to the companies.
“By working with Cisco to explore how to link multiple quantum computers like these together into a distributed network, we will pursue how to further scale quantum’s computational power,” said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow.
The companies said that a distributed quantum network could lay groundwork towards a quantum computing internet defined by quantum computers, sensors, and communication in the late 2030s.
Cisco and IBM added that they will work to solve fundamental challenges towards a quantum computing internet.
The companies are targeting an initial proof-of-concept demonstration by the end of 2030, for which they plan to entangle qubits from multiple separate quantum computers located in distinct cryogenic environments. The companies added that doing so will require them to invent new connections, including microwave-optical transducers and a supporting software stack.
Cisco and IBM said that linking together multiple quantum computers will require an appropriate interface. IBM plans to build a quantum networking unit, or QNU, to serve as the interface to a quantum processing unit, or QPU, with the task of taking stationary quantum information in the QPU and converting it into “flying” quantum information through the QNU to then be linked across potentially multiple quantum computers through a network.
Cisco’s quantum network would aim to distribute the entanglements to arbitrary pairs of these QNUs on an on-demand basis to drive the quantum information transfer.
Together, the companies plan to investigate how a network bridge, consisting of novel hardware and open-source software, could use Cisco quantum network nodes to link many IBM QPUs within a data center through its QNU interface.
In the future, this approach could be extended to link QPUs across multiple data centers, the companies added.