Photonic quantum computing company, Xanadu, announced the release of the first publicly available photonic quantum cloud platform. Developers can now access Xanadu’s gate-based photonic quantum processors, in 8, 12, and soon 24 qubit machines.
Photonics based quantum computers have advantages over older platforms. Xanadu’s quantum processors operate at room temperature. They can easily integrate into existing fiber optic-based telecommunication infrastructure, enabling a future where quantum computers are networked. It also offers great scalability supporting fault tolerance, owing to robust error-resistant physical qubits and flexibility in designing error correction codes. Xanadu’s unique type of qubit is based on squeezed states – a special type of light generated by their own chip-integrated silicon photonic devices.
Xanadu’s partners and customers are currently testing solutions on the pre-release Xanadu Quantum Cloud. These include academic institutions, quantum startups, and national labs including Creative Destruction Labs, Scotia Bank, BMO and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Now the company will be extending access to a number of new enterprise clients who are seeking to leverage quantum computing to solve their most complex problems.
In addition to Xanadu Quantum Cloud, developers will use Xanadu’s open-source tools widely available on Github. These include Strawberry Fields, its cross-platform Python library for simulating and executing programs on quantum photonic hardware and PennyLane, its software library for quantum machine learning, quantum computing, and quantum chemistry. The community includes a vast array of tutorials and educational materials for users of all levels of experience to begin developing and experimenting with quantum applications.
The enterprise adoption of quantum computing is in the early stages of development, but access to photonic quantum computing over the cloud will give developers across industries and academia the chance to explore potential business applications. Open access educates and drives interest towards new, concrete implementations that demonstrate the future of computing. Xanadu’s processors provide researchers and developers with novel approaches that are unique to solve problems in finance, quantum chemistry, machine learning, and graph analytics.
