Q-CTRL, Diraq partner to develop quantum computing technologies for de…

Q-CTRL and Diraq have partnered to develop silicon-based quantum processors under three projects funded by the Australian government and the US Army Research Office. The companies will also explore defence applications of quantum computing technologies developed under these projects. (Commonwealth of Australia)

Sydney-based quantum-focused companies Q-CTRL and Diraq have partnered to develop advanced quantum computing technologies under three multimillion-dollar projects secured from the Australian government and the US Army Research Office (ARO).

The first two projects are part of the New South Wales (NSW) government's Quantum Computing Commercialisation Fund (QCCF) programme and focus on delivering a cloud-accessible silicon quantum processor, Q-CTRL and Diraq said in early September. The QCCF programme aims to enhance technical maturity of quantum computing hardware and software developed in NSW to enable their commercialisation.

Q-CTRL CEO Michael Biercuk told Janes that the company in collaboration with Diraq will also explore defence applications of the new cloud-accessible silicon quantum processor.

“Q-CTRL has already shown that small-scale quantum computers can deliver defence value. For instance, we worked with the Australian Army to show how a major logistics challenge for staging a multinational military exercise can benefit in the next few years from the use of quantum computing,” Biercuk said.

“We [Q-CTRL and Diraq] will pursue similar applications with this new generation of silicon processors, coupling performance-management infrastructure software to hardware-optimised application modules for defence and other end-users,” he added.

Under the third project, funded by the US ARO, Q-CTRL and Diraq will focus on “advancing the state-of-the-art in silicon-based quantum-computer hardware such that it can later be applied to defence problems such as logistics optimisation and cyber security”, Biercuk noted.