Q-CTRL’s software will be available on four leading quantum platforms, including global hardware giant IBM and fellow Sydney challenger Diraq, in another boost for the University of Sydney spinout and the developing local sector.
The company’s performance-management software, Fire Opal, will be natively integrated into four platforms, with Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services and Oxford Quantum Circuits Cloud QCaaS devices also part of the “built to last” partnerships announced on Tuesday.
Fire Opal improves the usability and capability of quantum computing by minimising errors and abstracting details of how to operate hardware for peak performance.
A useful fault tolerant quantum computer is yet to be proven and errors remain the biggest bottleneck to development, with various technological approaches to mitigate them being pursued around the world.
But software is already improving user experience and performance of existing modest scale machines, helping to speed up innovation and deliver useful outcomes.
“At Q-CTRL we’ve had a single-minded focus on how infrastructure software can help deliver the best possible performance from quantum hardware,” Q-CTRL CEO and founder Professor Michael Biercuk said.
“The first time we saw over a factor of a thousand improvement on a commercial quantum computer we knew this could change the direction of the industry.”
Professor Biercuk, who spun Q-CTRL out of the University of Sydney in 2017, said the partnerships with some of the world’s biggest quantum hardware vendors will deliver value to an increasing range of users.
“These partnerships have been built over the long-term through trusted relationships and real demonstrations of what’s possible, and they’re built to last,” he said.
Q-CTRL announced its initial integration with IBM late last year, the first time the US giant had added the third-party software to its service.
The integration with Diraq is a “natural” fit for the two Sydney startups,” Diraq CEO and founder Professor Andrew Dzurak said.
“Partnering with the world’s leading quantum performance management software provider is firmly aligned with our strategic focus and technical development program. We’re looking forward to bringing this technology to market as we target transformational million-qubit machines over the coming years.”
Other partners Rigetti and Oxford Quantum Circuits said early benchmarking showed Fire Opal is helping to reduce errors, allowing more complex circuits and potentially more sophisticated applications.
Australia is considered one of the leading nations for quantum research and startup companies but faces stiff competition and its place in a global quantum market is yet to be settler.
In a boost for domestic production, the federal and Queensland governments in April announced an investment of almost $1 billion to have US firm PsiQuantum establish a local manufacturing facility in Brisbane.
But the deal also raised tough questions about details of the investment and calls for more support to also scale up the local quantum sector.
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