Quantum News Briefs October 31: Fully Operational Rigetti QPU Included in UK’s Recently Opened National Quantum Computer Centre • Quantum Xchange Receives FIPS 140-3 Certification for Phio TX • D-Wave Deemed “Awardable” Vendor for US Department of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace
Fully Operational Rigetti QPU Included in UK’s Recently Opened National Quantum Computer Centre
Rigetti UK Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rigetti Computing, Inc., a pioneer in full-stack quantum-classical computing, announced October 30 that the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) officially opened the doors of its landmark facility on Harwell Campus on October 25. The facility will support world-class quantum computing research and provide state-of-the-art laboratories for designing, building, and testing quantum computers. Rigetti’s system located at the NQCC is a fully operational 24-qubit Ankaa-class quantum computer, featuring tunable couplers and a square lattice for fast gate times, enhanced connectivity, and high fidelity. As part of the implementation, Rigetti will be integrating Riverlane’s technology with the long-term objective of large-scale error correction.
Rigetti CEO Dr. Subodh Kulkarni and CTO David Rivas attended the official inauguration to celebrate the milestone
In February 2024, Rigetti was awarded a Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) grant delivered by Innovate UK and funded by the NQCC to deliver a quantum computing system based on the Company’s Ankaa-class architecture to the new facility. The 24-qubit system will be made available to NQCC researchers for testing, benchmarking, and exploratory applications development.
Quantum Xchange Receives FIPS 140-3 Certification for Phio TX
Quantum Xchange announced October 30 that its crypto-agile, PQC management platform, Phio TX™ has achieved FIPS 140-3 certification, meeting the rigorous security requirements for cryptographic modules used by the U.S. Government, its agency partners, and commercial businesses.
Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-3, published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is the U.S. government standard used in designing and implementing cryptographic modules that federal departments and agencies must confirm when purchasing cryptographic-based security systems. Quantum Xchange’s 140-3 certification is especially timely, given NIST’s publication of the first finalized Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standards on Aug. 13, 2024, and the five-year sunset period for FIPS 140-2 certificates coming to an end in 2024.
Phio TX is used by customers to upgrade their existing networks from the current quantum-vulnerable cryptography, which has been in use for nearly half a century, to PQCs. Phio TX offers a trusted management plane that enables PQC upgrades without disrupting data flows, provisioning systems, or network operations. With built-in crypto-agility, Phio TX supports all available PQC algorithms and was designed to support the accelerating pace of new PQC standards deployments.
D-Wave Deemed “Awardable” Vendor for US Department of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace
D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE:QBTS), a leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services and the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers, announced October 31 it has achieved “Awardable” status through the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s (CDAO) Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace.
The Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace is the premier offering of the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) suite of tools and services for accelerating the procurement and adoption of emerging technologies. The marketplace will now include D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing technology alongside other offerings like Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), data, and analytics capabilities.
