World’s powerful photonic quantum processor made in Twente

Quix Quantum has announced an update for its photonic quantum processor line-up. Featuring a record number of 20 qumodes (the optical equivalent of qubits) and the best operating specifications on the market, the new processor outperforms the current generation of processors by almost a factor of 2, the Enschede-based startup claims.

Like the more familiar ‘conventional’ quantum computer, photonic quantum computing exploits quantum mechanical phenomena to produce potentially vast computing power but goes about it in an entirely different way. Instead of creating and manipulating delicate, usually subatomic quantum systems (qubits), it involves leading photons through an optical circuit consisting of a matrix of programmable intersections. Non-classical processing power emerges from the quantum mechanical interactions between the light particles when they meet along the way.