Whereas SQC appears to have missed several of its milestones and now does not expect to have a basic but nevertheless commercially useful quantum computer until 2033, Professor Dzurak told The Australian Financial Review Diraq was well on schedule and might even beat its self-imposed June 30, 2028, deadline for creating a basic-yet-commercially valuable machine.

Quantum computers are designed to harness the strange properties of matter at the atomic scale to make calculations in seconds, minutes or hours that would take regular computers years, decades or even centuries to run, if they could perform them at all.

It is expected that quantum computers will ultimately need many millions or even billions of quantum bits, or qubits, before theyll be able to run every type of quantum computing algorithm, making them what are known as universal quantum computers analogous to todays all-purpose supercomputers.

But in the meantime, simpler quantum computers with only hundreds or thousands of qubits, capable of running only a few algorithms, can still be commercially valuable in more science-related industries, Professor Dzurak said. It is such a device that Diraq is hoping to build by 2028, to meet its Phase 2 milestone.

Im 100 per cent confident that we will have a quantum computing system by 2028, that will be commercially valuable, he said.

While SQCs qubits are built by precisely placing phosphorous atoms in a lattice of silicon and using their quantum properties to make computations, Diraqs qubits are created using transistors similar to the ones already found in conventional computers, Professor Dzurak said.

That means Diraqs quantum chips can be built much more simply, using the same factories (or fabs) that make regular silicon chips, he said.

Indeed, as part of the start-ups Phase 1 milestone of building chips with just one or two high-quality qubits at a conventional fab by June 30, 2025, Diraq had just taken delivery of some chips made by its unnamed, overseas fab partner.

I cant tell you specifically any results because were looking to make an announcement in due course, but what I can tell you is that the results are very, very positive, he said.

Professor Simmons was contacted for comment.

Originally posted here:
Quantum computing: Australian start-up Diraq says it will beat Silicon Quantum Computing and produce the country's ... - The Australian Financial...