Quix highlights its competitive edge in photonic quantum computing

Enschede-based Quix has announced the release of a 12×12 quantum photonic processor, the most complex of its kind the world has ever seen. The upgrade from the 8×8 version the startup started out with still won’t beat classical (super)computers by a long shot, but Quix nonetheless expects to sell a number of them. “Researchers are eager to get a taste of what this technology can do. At this stage, the interest comes from academia, but it’s growing in industry too. Every self-respecting multinational is currently exploring the possibilities of quantum computing,” says Quix CTO Jelmer Renema.

Like the widely-known ‘conventional’ quantum computer, quantum photonic processors exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to produce potentially vast computing power, but they go about it in an entirely different way. Instead of creating and manipulating delicate subatomic quantum states (qubits), photons are led through an optical chip 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.