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This is inaccurate. The first thing this company built was a programmable quantum computer. The second thing they did was build a quantum integrated circuit fab
by reikonomusha 8y ago
This is inaccurate. The first thing this company built was a programmable quantum computer. The second thing they did was build a quantum integrated circuit fabrication facility. 4 or 5 years in they started doing access models with software (“web app”, a term that’s also inaccurate, and DB).
Having a quantum integrated circuit without a way to access it (a cloud platform, in Rigetti’s case), is like having a CPU without a motherboard. How might you expect to program the integrated circuit if it has no infrastructure to allow it to be programmed? This is a key ingredient to quantum advantage, not just the hard science of manufacturing scalable and fault-tolerant integrated circuits, especially since the notion of programming such a circuit is already a woefully nascent field.
- jackconnor 8y agoSo, what's the "6 - 36 months" piece then, if they already have a workable quantum computer? Answer: they don't, and they don't know if they ever will, otherwise the time to completion would not have a totally arbitrary made up timeline. No?
- reikonomusha 8y agoQuantum computers are analog devices that operate at varying levels of fidelity. Timelines usually refer to how long it takes to get to the next performance node, not how long it takes for a quantum computer to exist at all. They exist, are programmable, and are often accessible to third-parties. Plenty of sources conclude that independently. Many institutions, Rigetti Computing included, have built functional quantum computers.