(SpaceNews) Debra Werner, correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco, recently interviewed Quantum Brilliance about potential space-based applications for its quantum technology. IQT-News summarizes the conversation below.
Mark Mattingley-Scott, Quantum Brilliance managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, recently told SpaceNews, “We really want to go into space as soon as possible.”
Last year, Quantum Brilliance delivered its first quantum computer to the government-funded Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Western Australia. While this initial product is about half a meter wide and fits in a standard server rack, the company is working on smaller models.
“We plan to get that down to a lunchbox size that consumers a couple hundred watts in the next few years,” said Mattingley-Scott. “That’s a very interesting payload to put on a satellite in space.”
Quantum Brilliance is working to develop quantum computers that can outperform conventional microprocessors, like GPUs, for the same size, weight and power.
“We were pretty certain we can get to quantum utility against the GPU in the next three years,” Mattingley-Scott said. “Those are the kind of timescales where for space, you need to start doing stuff now.”
Quantum Brilliance, founded in Australia in 2019 established a German subsidiary last year.
The firm’s German subsidiary is working with Ulm University on a 15.6 million euros ($17.1 million) research project, funded by the German government and led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics. The three-year project, announced in January, is focused on scalable quantum microprocessor technology based on synthetic diamonds.
Sandra K. Helsel, Ph.D. has been researching and reporting on frontier technologies since 1990. She has her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.