Latest news with #AWSCenterforQuantumComputing
Al Bawaba
03-03-2025
- Business
- Al Bawaba
Amazon Web Services announces new quantum computing chip
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced Ocelot, a new quantum computing chip that can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, compared to current approaches. Developed by the team at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at the California Institute of Technology, Ocelot represents a breakthrough in the pursuit to build fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving problems of commercial and scientific importance that are beyond the reach of today's conventional computers. AWS used a novel design for Ocelot's architecture, building error correction in from the ground up and using the 'cat qubit'. Cat qubits–named after the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment–intrinsically suppress certain forms of errors, reducing the resources required for quantum error correction. Through this new approach with Ocelot, AWS researchers have, for the first time, combined cat qubit technology and additional quantum error correction components onto a microchip that can be manufactured in a scalable fashion using processes borrowed from the microelectronics industry. History shows that important advancements in computing have been made by fundamentally rethinking hardware components, as this can have a significant impact on cost, performance, and even the feasibility of a new technology. The computer revolution truly took off when the transistor replaced the vacuum tube, enabling room-sized computers to be shrunk down into today's compact and much more powerful, reliable, and lower-cost laptops. Choosing the right building block to scale is critical, and today's announcement represents an important step in developing efficient means to scaling up to practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers. 'With the recent advancements in quantum research, it is no longer a matter of if, but when practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers will be available for real-world applications. Ocelot is an important step on that journey,' said Oskar Painter, AWS director of Quantum Hardware. 'In the future, quantum chips built according to the Ocelot architecture could cost as little as one-fifth of current approaches, due to the drastically reduced number of resources required for error correction. Concretely, we believe this will accelerate our timeline to a practical quantum computer by up to five years.' AWS researchers have published their findings in a peer-reviewed research paper in Nature. The major challenge with quantum computing: One of the biggest challenges with quantum computers is that they're incredibly sensitive to the smallest changes, or 'noise' in their environment. Vibrations, heat, electromagnetic interference from cell phones and Wi-Fi networks, or even cosmic rays and radiation from outer space, can all knock qubits out of their quantum state, causing errors in the quantum computation being performed. This has historically made it extremely challenging to build quantum computers that can perform reliable, error-free calculations of any significant complexity. 'The biggest challenge isn't just building more qubits,' said Painter. 'It's making them work reliably.' To solve this problem, quantum computers rely on quantum error correction that uses special encodings of quantum information across multiple qubits—in the form of 'logical' qubits—to shield quantum information from the environment. This also enables the detection and correction of errors as they occur. Unfortunately, given the sheer number of qubits required to get accurate results, current approaches to quantum error correction have come at a huge, and therefore prohibitive, cost. A new approach to quantum error correction: To address the current problems associated with quantum error correction, researchers at AWS developed Ocelot. Ocelot was designed from the ground up with error correction 'built in.' 'We looked at how others were approaching quantum error correction and decided to take a different path,' said Painter. 'We didn't take an existing architecture and then try to incorporate error correction afterwards. We selected our qubit and architecture with quantum error correction as the top requirement. We believe that if we're going to make practical quantum computers, quantum error correction needs to come first.' In fact, according to Painter, his team estimates that scaling Ocelot to a 'fully-fledged quantum computer capable of transformative societal impact would require as little as one-tenth of the resources associated with standard quantum error correcting approaches.' One way to think about quantum correction is in the context of quality control in manufacturing, and the difference between needing one inspection point to catch all defects, instead of 10 inspection points. In other words, it offers the same result, but with fewer resources and an overall improved manufacturing process. By reducing the amount of resources needed through approaches such as with Ocelot, quantum computers can be built smaller, more reliably, and at lower cost. All of this accelerates the path to applying quantum computing to future applications in the real-world, such as faster drug discovery and development, the production of new materials, the ability to make more accurate predictions about risk and investment strategies in financial markets, and many more. Making science fiction science fact:While today's announcement is a promising start, Ocelot is still a prototype and AWS is committed to continuing to invest in quantum research and refining its approach. In the same way it took many years of development and learnings of running x86 systems (a widely used computer architecture for central processing units) reliably and securely at scale to build Graviton into one of the leading chips in the cloud, AWS is taking a similar approach to quantum computing. 'We're just getting started and we believe we have several more stages of scaling to go through,' said Painter. 'It's a very tough problem to tackle, and we will need to continue investing in basic research, while staying connected to, and learning from, important work being done in academia. Right now, our task is to keep innovating across the quantum computing stack, to keep examining whether we're using the right architecture, and to incorporate these learnings into our engineering efforts. It's a flywheel of continuous improvement and scaling.'How to get started with quantum computing: Customers can get started exploring quantum computing today with Amazon Braket on AWS. Amazon Braket is a full-managed quantum computing service that allows scientists, developers, and students to work with a range of third-party quantum computing hardware, high-performance simulators, and a suite of software tools that make it easy to get started in quantum computing.
Channel Post MEA
28-02-2025
- Business
- Channel Post MEA
Amazon Unveils Quantum Computing Chip Ocelot
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced Ocelot, a new quantum computing chip that can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, compared to current approaches. Developed by the team at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at the California Institute of Technology, Ocelot represents a breakthrough in the pursuit to build fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving problems of commercial and scientific importance that are beyond the reach of today's conventional computers. AWS used a novel design for Ocelot's architecture, building error correction in from the ground up and using the 'cat qubit'. Cat qubits–named after the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment–intrinsically suppress certain forms of errors, reducing the resources required for quantum error correction. Through this new approach with Ocelot, AWS researchers have, for the first time, combined cat qubit technology and additional quantum error correction components onto a microchip that can be manufactured in a scalable fashion using processes borrowed from the microelectronics industry. History shows that important advancements in computing have been made by fundamentally rethinking hardware components, as this can have a significant impact on cost, performance, and even the feasibility of a new technology. The computer revolution truly took off when the transistor replaced the vacuum tube, enabling room-sized computers to be shrunk down into today's compact and much more powerful, reliable, and lower-cost laptops. Choosing the right building block to scale is critical, and today's announcement represents an important step in developing efficient means to scaling up to practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers. 'With the recent advancements in quantum research, it is no longer a matter of if, but when practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers will be available for real-world applications. Ocelot is an important step on that journey,' said Oskar Painter, AWS director of Quantum Hardware. 'In the future, quantum chips built according to the Ocelot architecture could cost as little as one-fifth of current approaches, due to the drastically reduced number of resources required for error correction. Concretely, we believe this will accelerate our timeline to a practical quantum computer by up to five years.' AWS researchers have published their findings in a peer-reviewed research paper in Nature. The major challenge with quantum computing: One of the biggest challenges with quantum computers is that they're incredibly sensitive to the smallest changes, or 'noise' in their environment. Vibrations, heat, electromagnetic interference from cell phones and Wi-Fi networks, or even cosmic rays and radiation from outer space, can all knock qubits out of their quantum state, causing errors in the quantum computation being performed. This has historically made it extremely challenging to build quantum computers that can perform reliable, error-free calculations of any significant complexity. 'The biggest challenge isn't just building more qubits,' said Painter. 'It's making them work reliably.' To solve this problem, quantum computers rely on quantum error correction that uses special encodings of quantum information across multiple qubits—in the form of 'logical' qubits—to shield quantum information from the environment. This also enables the detection and correction of errors as they occur. Unfortunately, given the sheer number of qubits required to get accurate results, current approaches to quantum error correction have come at a huge, and therefore prohibitive, cost. A new approach to quantum error correction: To address the current problems associated with quantum error correction, researchers at AWS developed Ocelot. Ocelot was designed from the ground up with error correction 'built in.' 'We looked at how others were approaching quantum error correction and decided to take a different path,' said Painter. 'We didn't take an existing architecture and then try to incorporate error correction afterwards. We selected our qubit and architecture with quantum error correction as the top requirement. We believe that if we're going to make practical quantum computers, quantum error correction needs to come first.' In fact, according to Painter, his team estimates that scaling Ocelot to a 'fully-fledged quantum computer capable of transformative societal impact would require as little as one-tenth of the resources associated with standard quantum error correcting approaches.' One way to think about quantum correction is in the context of quality control in manufacturing, and the difference between needing one inspection point to catch all defects, instead of 10 inspection points. In other words, it offers the same result, but with fewer resources and an overall improved manufacturing process. By reducing the amount of resources needed through approaches such as with Ocelot, quantum computers can be built smaller, more reliably, and at lower cost. All of this accelerates the path to applying quantum computing to future applications in the real-world, such as faster drug discovery and development, the production of new materials, the ability to make more accurate predictions about risk and investment strategies in financial markets, and many more. Making science fiction science fact: While today's announcement is a promising start, Ocelot is still a prototype and AWS is committed to continuing to invest in quantum research and refining its approach. In the same way it took many years of development and learnings of running x86 systems (a widely used computer architecture for central processing units) reliably and securely at scale to build Graviton into one of the leading chips in the cloud, AWS is taking a similar approach to quantum computing. 'We're just getting started and we believe we have several more stages of scaling to go through,' said Painter. 'It's a very tough problem to tackle, and we will need to continue investing in basic research, while staying connected to, and learning from, important work being done in academia. Right now, our task is to keep innovating across the quantum computing stack, to keep examining whether we're using the right architecture, and to incorporate these learnings into our engineering efforts. It's a flywheel of continuous improvement and scaling.' How to get started with quantum computing: Customers can get started exploring quantum computing today with Amazon Braket on AWS. Amazon Braket is a full-managed quantum computing service that allows scientists, developers, and students to work with a range of third-party quantum computing hardware, high-performance simulators, and a suite of software tools that make it easy to get started in quantum computing. Ocelot: Fast facts Ocelot is a prototype quantum computing chip, designed to test the effectiveness of AWS's quantum error correction architecture. It consists of two integrated silicon microchips. Each chip has an area of roughly 1cm2. They are bonded one on top of the other in an electrically-connected chip stack. On the surface of each silicon microchip are thin layers of superconducting materials that form the quantum circuit elements. The Ocelot chip is composed of 14 core components: five data qubits (the cat qubits), five 'buffer circuits' for stabilizing the data qubits, and four additional qubits for detecting errors on the data qubits. The cat qubits store the quantum states used for computation. To do so, they rely on components called oscillators, which generate a repetitive electrical signal with steady timing. Ocelot's high-quality oscillators are made from a thin film of superconducting material called Tantalum. AWS material scientists have developed a specific way of processing Tantalum on the silicon chip to boost oscillator performance. How do quantum computers work? Quantum computers have the potential to drive major advances in society and technology, from cryptography to engineering novel materials. The main difference between the conventional or 'classical' computers we use today, and quantum computers, is that classical computers use bits—usually represented as a digital value of 1 or 0 —as their most basic unit of information. But quantum computers use quantum bits, or 'qubits'—usually elementary particles such as electrons or photons—to make calculations. Scientists can apply precisely timed and tuned electromagnetic pulses to manipulate what's called the 'quantum state' of the qubit, where it can be both 1 and 0 at the same time. This mind-bending behavior, when performed across many qubits, allows a quantum computer to solve some important problems exponentially faster than a classical computer ever could. 0 0
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Amazon unveils Ocelot, its first quantum computing chip
Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Thursday announced Ocelot, its first-generation quantum computing chip, as it enters the race against fellow tech giants in harnessing the experimental technology. Developed by the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at the California Institute of Technology, the new chip can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, according to the company. Unlike conventional computers, which use bits representing values of either 1 or 0, quantum computers utilize quantum bits, or 'qubits', that can exist in multiple states simultaneously, potentially solving complex problems exponentially faster than conventional computers. Quantum research is seen as a critical emerging field, and both the United States and China have been investing heavily in the area, with Washington also placing restrictions on exports of the sensitive technology. Microsoft last week unveiled its own quantum chip that it said could transform everything from fighting pollution to developing new medicines, arguing that the promise of quantum computing is closer to reality. In December, Google unveiled its Willow quantum chip, which it claimed had dramatically reduced computing errors and performed a complex calculation in minutes that would have taken a traditional supercomputer millions of years. 'We believe that if we're going to make practical quantum computers, quantum error correction needs to come first. That's what we've done with Ocelot,' said Oskar Painter, the AWS head of quantum hardware. One of the greatest challenges in quantum computing is the sensitivity of qubits to environmental disturbances, such as vibrations, heat and electromagnetic interference, all of which can cause computation errors. The Ocelot chip addresses this through its design, which AWS claims could reduce the resources required for quantum error correction by five to 10 times compared to conventional approaches. Scientists at AWS have published their findings in the journal Nature. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion 'We're sort of in the vacuum tube days right now with quantum computing – making these massive machines and trying to figure out how to get better, smaller, more resource-efficient components to scale them more effectively,' Painter explained. While still a laboratory prototype, AWS believes Ocelot represents an important step toward quantum computers capable of solving problems beyond the reach of any typical computer. The company says it will continue refining its approach through ongoing research and development.
TECHx
27-02-2025
- Business
- TECHx
AWS Launches Ocelot Quantum Chip to Slash Error Correction Costs - TECHx Media AWS Launches Ocelot Quantum Chip to Slash Error Correction Costs
AWS Launches Ocelot Quantum Chip to Slash Error Correction Costs Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled Ocelot, a groundbreaking quantum computing chip that promises to reduce the costs of quantum error correction by up to 90%, setting the stage for practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers. Developed by the AWS Center for Quantum Computing in collaboration with the California Institute of Technology, Ocelot is a significant step in overcoming the current limitations of quantum computing, offering potential solutions to problems beyond the capabilities of traditional computers. Ocelot's innovative design integrates quantum error correction directly into its architecture, utilizing 'cat qubits'—a technology inspired by the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. These cat qubits are designed to suppress specific types of errors, minimizing the resources required for error correction. This development marks the first time cat qubit technology and error correction components have been successfully combined onto a microchip that can be manufactured using scalable, microelectronics industry processes. With Ocelot, AWS aims to lower the cost of quantum computing by as much as 80%, drastically accelerating the timeline for building practical quantum computers. AWS estimates that quantum chips designed with the Ocelot architecture could be produced at a fraction of the cost of current approaches, speeding up the development of quantum computing by up to five years. AWS's Ocelot design could revolutionize industries by enabling the widespread use of quantum computing in real-world applications like drug discovery, material science, and financial modeling. One of the biggest challenges in quantum computing is dealing with environmental interference, such as heat, vibrations, and electromagnetic noise, which can cause errors in quantum computations. Traditional quantum error correction methods are resource-intensive, requiring large numbers of qubits to ensure accuracy. Ocelot solves this problem by fundamentally rethinking quantum error correction from the ground up, designing the chip to incorporate error correction as a core component. AWS researchers believe this new approach will dramatically reduce the resources required for quantum error correction, paving the way for smaller, more cost-effective quantum computers. Ocelot is still in its prototype phase, but AWS is committed to advancing its quantum research and refining the technology. The company's quantum hardware director, Oskar Painter, emphasizes that Ocelot is just the beginning, with further scaling and development needed to bring practical quantum computers to life. AWS is drawing on lessons learned from its experience with the Graviton chip and applying a similar approach to quantum computing, continually innovating and scaling the technology to meet future demands. Customers eager to explore quantum computing can access Amazon Braket, AWS's fully-managed quantum computing service. Amazon Braket provides users with access to various quantum hardware options, simulators, and software tools, making it easier than ever for developers, scientists, and students to enter the world of quantum computing. Ocelot is a prototype quantum computing chip composed of two integrated silicon microchips, each about 1 cm² in size. Each chip features superconducting materials forming quantum circuits and includes 14 core components: five data qubits (cat qubits), five buffer circuits for stabilizing the data qubits, and four additional qubits for error detection. These components are designed to work together seamlessly to ensure that quantum computations are carried out accurately and efficiently, with reduced error rates and fewer resources required for error correction. Quantum computers, powered by qubits, have the potential to revolutionize many industries by solving complex problems that are impossible for classical computers to handle. Unlike traditional computers that use bits, quantum computers utilize qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously. This quantum behavior enables quantum computers to perform calculations exponentially faster, unlocking new possibilities in fields such as cryptography, material science, and artificial intelligence. AWS's Ocelot chip represents a key milestone in the journey toward practical quantum computing, helping to lay the foundation for the next generation of computing technologies that could reshape industries and solve some of the world's most pressing challenges.
Trade Arabia
27-02-2025
- Business
- Trade Arabia
Amazon Web Services announces new quantum computing chip
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced Ocelot, a new quantum computing chip that can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, compared to current approaches. Developed by the team at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at the California Institute of Technology, Ocelot represents a breakthrough in the pursuit to build fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving problems of commercial and scientific importance that are beyond the reach of today's conventional computers, AWS said. AWS used a novel design for Ocelot's architecture, building error correction in from the ground up and using the 'cat qubit'. Cat qubits–named after the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment–intrinsically suppress certain forms of errors, reducing the resources required for quantum error correction. Through this new approach with Ocelot, AWS researchers have, for the first time, combined cat qubit technology and additional quantum error correction components onto a microchip that can be manufactured in a scalable fashion using processes borrowed from the microelectronics industry. History shows that important advancements in computing have been made by fundamentally rethinking hardware components, as this can have a significant impact on cost, performance, and even the feasibility of a new technology. The computer revolution truly took off when the transistor replaced the vacuum tube, enabling room-sized computers to be shrunk down into today's compact and much more powerful, reliable, and lower-cost laptops. Choosing the right building block to scale is critical, and today's announcement represents an important step in developing efficient means to scaling up to practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers, it said. 'With the recent advancements in quantum research, it is no longer a matter of if, but when practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers will be available for real-world applications. Ocelot is an important step on that journey,' said Oskar Painter, AWS director of Quantum Hardware. 'In the future, quantum chips built according to the Ocelot architecture could cost as little as one-fifth of current approaches, due to the drastically reduced number of resources required for error correction. Concretely, we believe this will accelerate our timeline to a practical quantum computer by up to five years.' AWS researchers have published their findings in a peer-reviewed research paper in Nature. The major challenge with quantum computing: One of the biggest challenges with quantum computers is that they're incredibly sensitive to the smallest changes, or 'noise' in their environment. Vibrations, heat, electromagnetic interference from cell phones and Wi-Fi networks, or even cosmic rays and radiation from outer space, can all knock qubits out of their quantum state, causing errors in the quantum computation being performed. This has historically made it extremely challenging to build quantum computers that can perform reliable, error-free calculations of any significant complexity. 'The biggest challenge isn't just building more qubits,' said Painter. 'It's making them work reliably.' To solve this problem, quantum computers rely on quantum error correction that uses special encodings of quantum information across multiple qubits—in the form of 'logical' qubits—to shield quantum information from the environment. This also enables the detection and correction of errors as they occur. Unfortunately, given the sheer number of qubits required to get accurate results, current approaches to quantum error correction have come at a huge, and therefore prohibitive, cost. A new approach to quantum error correction: To address the current problems associated with quantum error correction, researchers at AWS developed Ocelot. Ocelot was designed from the ground up with error correction 'built in.' 'We looked at how others were approaching quantum error correction and decided to take a different path,' said Painter. 'We didn't take an existing architecture and then try to incorporate error correction afterwards. We selected our qubit and architecture with quantum error correction as the top requirement. We believe that if we're going to make practical quantum computers, quantum error correction needs to come first.' In fact, according to Painter, his team estimates that scaling Ocelot to a 'fully-fledged quantum computer capable of transformative societal impact would require as little as one-tenth of the resources associated with standard quantum error correcting approaches.' One way to think about quantum correction is in the context of quality control in manufacturing, and the difference between needing one inspection point to catch all defects, instead of 10 inspection points. In other words, it offers the same result, but with fewer resources and an overall improved manufacturing process. By reducing the amount of resources needed through approaches such as with Ocelot, quantum computers can be built smaller, more reliably, and at lower cost. All of this accelerates the path to applying quantum computing to future applications in the real-world, such as faster drug discovery and development, the production of new materials, the ability to make more accurate predictions about risk and investment strategies in financial markets, and many more. Making science fiction science fact: While today's announcement is a promising start, Ocelot is still a prototype and AWS is committed to continuing to invest in quantum research and refining its approach. In the same way it took many years of development and learnings of running x86 systems (a widely used computer architecture for central processing units) reliably and securely at scale to build Graviton into one of the leading chips in the cloud, AWS is taking a similar approach to quantum computing. 'We're just getting started and we believe we have several more stages of scaling to go through,' said Painter. 'It's a very tough problem to tackle, and we will need to continue investing in basic research, while staying connected to, and learning from, important work being done in academia. Right now, our task is to keep innovating across the quantum computing stack, to keep examining whether we're using the right architecture, and to incorporate these learnings into our engineering efforts. It's a flywheel of continuous improvement and scaling.' How to get started with quantum computing: Customers can get started exploring quantum computing today with Amazon Braket on AWS. Amazon Braket is a full-managed quantum computing service that allows scientists, developers, and students to work with a range of third-party quantum computing hardware, high-performance simulators, and a suite of software tools that make it easy to get started in quantum computing. Ocelot: Fast facts • Ocelot is a prototype quantum computing chip, designed to test the effectiveness of AWS's quantum error correction architecture. • It consists of two integrated silicon microchips. Each chip has an area of roughly 1cm2. They are bonded one on top of the other in an electrically-connected chip stack. • On the surface of each silicon microchip are thin layers of superconducting materials that form the quantum circuit elements. • The Ocelot chip is composed of 14 core components: five data qubits (the cat qubits), five 'buffer circuits' for stabilizing the data qubits, and four additional qubits for detecting errors on the data qubits. • The cat qubits store the quantum states used for computation. To do so, they rely on components called oscillators, which generate a repetitive electrical signal with steady timing. • Ocelot's high-quality oscillators are made from a thin film of superconducting material called Tantalum. AWS material scientists have developed a specific way of processing Tantalum on the silicon chip to boost oscillator performance. How do quantum computers work? Quantum computers have the potential to drive major advances in society and technology, from cryptography to engineering novel materials. The main difference between the conventional or 'classical' computers we use today, and quantum computers, is that classical computers use bits—usually represented as a digital value of 1 or 0 —as their most basic unit of information. But quantum computers use quantum bits, or 'qubits'—usually elementary particles such as electrons or photons—to make calculations.
