1,668 research outputs found
Cryogenic Control Beyond 100 Qubits
Quantum computation has been a major focus of research in the past two decades, with recent experiments demonstrating basic algorithms on small numbers of qubits. A large-scale universal quantum computer would have a profound impact on science and technology, providing a solution to several problems intractable for classical computers. To realise such a machine, today's small experiments must be scaled up, and a system must be built which provides control and measurement of many hundreds of qubits. A device of this scale is challenging: qubits are highly sensitive to their environment, and sophisticated isolation techniques are required to preserve the qubits' fragile states. Solid-state qubits require deep-cryogenic cooling to suppress thermal excitations. Yet current state-of-the-art experiments use room-temperature electronics which are electrically connected to the qubits. This thesis investigates various scalable technologies and techniques which can be used to control quantum systems. With the requirements for semiconductor spin-qubits in mind, several custom electronic systems, to provide quantum control from deep cryogenic temperatures, are designed and measured. A system architecture is proposed for quantum control, providing a scalable approach to executing quantum algorithms on a large number of qubits. Control of a gallium arsenide qubit is demonstrated using a cryogenically operated FPGA driving custom gallium arsenide switches. The cryogenic performance of a commercial FPGA is measured, as the main logic processor in a cryogenic quantum control system, and digital-to-analog converters are analysed during cryogenic operation. Recent work towards a 100-qubit cryogenic control system is shown, including the design of interconnect solutions and multiplexing circuitry. With qubit fidelity over the fault-tolerant threshold for certain error correcting codes, accompanying control platforms will play a key role in the development of a scalable quantum machine
Towards a Holistic CAD Platform for Nanotechnologies
Silicon-based CMOS technologies are predicted to reach their ultimate limits
by the middle of the next decade. Research on nanotechnologies is actively
conducted, in a world-wide effort to develop new technologies able to maintain
the Moore's law. They promise revolutionizing the computing systems by
integrating tremendous numbers of devices at low cost. These trends will have a
profound impact on the architectures of computing systems and will require a
new paradigm of CAD. The paper presents a work in progress on this direction.
It is aimed at fitting requirements and constraints of nanotechnologies, in an
effort to achieve efficient use of the huge computing power promised by them.
To achieve this goal we are developing CAD tools able to exploit efficiently
these huge computing capabilities promised by nanotechnologies in the domain of
simulation of complex systems composed by huge numbers of relatively simple
elements.Comment: Submitted on behalf of TIMA Editions
(http://irevues.inist.fr/tima-editions
Autonomous Probabilistic Coprocessing with Petaflips per Second
In this paper we present a concrete design for a probabilistic (p-) computer
based on a network of p-bits, robust classical entities fluctuating between -1
and +1, with probabilities that are controlled through an input constructed
from the outputs of other p-bits. The architecture of this probabilistic
computer is similar to a stochastic neural network with the p-bit playing the
role of a binary stochastic neuron, but with one key difference: there is no
sequencer used to enforce an ordering of p-bit updates, as is typically
required. Instead, we explore \textit{sequencerless} designs where all p-bits
are allowed to flip autonomously and demonstrate that such designs can allow
ultrafast operation unconstrained by available clock speeds without
compromising the solution's fidelity. Based on experimental results from a
hardware benchmark of the autonomous design and benchmarked device models, we
project that a nanomagnetic implementation can scale to achieve petaflips per
second with millions of neurons. A key contribution of this paper is the focus
on a hardware metric flips per second as a problem and
substrate-independent figure-of-merit for an emerging class of hardware
annealers known as Ising Machines. Much like the shrinking feature sizes of
transistors that have continually driven Moore's Law, we believe that flips per
second can be continually improved in later technology generations of a wide
class of probabilistic, domain specific hardware.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl
An Experimental Microarchitecture for a Superconducting Quantum Processor
Quantum computers promise to solve certain problems that are intractable for
classical computers, such as factoring large numbers and simulating quantum
systems. To date, research in quantum computer engineering has focused
primarily at opposite ends of the required system stack: devising high-level
programming languages and compilers to describe and optimize quantum
algorithms, and building reliable low-level quantum hardware. Relatively little
attention has been given to using the compiler output to fully control the
operations on experimental quantum processors. Bridging this gap, we propose
and build a prototype of a flexible control microarchitecture supporting
quantum-classical mixed code for a superconducting quantum processor. The
microarchitecture is based on three core elements: (i) a codeword-based event
control scheme, (ii) queue-based precise event timing control, and (iii) a
flexible multilevel instruction decoding mechanism for control. We design a set
of quantum microinstructions that allows flexible control of quantum operations
with precise timing. We demonstrate the microarchitecture and microinstruction
set by performing a standard gate-characterization experiment on a transmon
qubit.Comment: 13 pages including reference. 9 figure
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