Amazon’s first quantum computing chip makes its debut
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Summary
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has unveiled Ocelot, its inaugural quantum computing chip that is a “proof-of-principle demonstration” of its quantum computing ability.
While the chip has only elemental computing capability, the company said it is a step towards developing a more substantial machine with error correction capabilities.
Ocelot consists of nine quantum bits – or qubits – on a chip, which, like other quantum hardware, must be cooled to near absolute zero to function.
Five of the qubits are a type of hardware known as ‘cat qubits’ – a concept named after Schrödinger’s cat, the thought experiment that an unseen cat in a box could be considered both alive and dead.
AWS’ use of cat qubits to store information and transmon qubits to monitor it differs from competitors IBM and Google, whose quantum computers use all transmons.