Public Funding for Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies Limited

Realisation of the transformational benefits quantum computing can bring depends critically on the performance of classical computing needed to support it. Support is needed both for the control systems that maintain the systems in their quantum states as well as for the error correction systems that decode the desired results from noisy data. One of the main challenges in providing this classical computational support is the unwanted transfer of heat to the cryogenic chamber. This flows through the cabling needed for sensor and control data into and out of the chamber and is generated by power dissipation within control electronics in the chamber itself. The heat load in the chamber can be minimised by doing as much of the computation as possible in the cryogenic environment, but this is limited by the power consumption of the control and error correction electronics. A further constraint on the classical processing is that in many systems it must be done extremely quickly, i.e. within the decoherence time of the quantum system -- typically tens of microseconds. Intrinsic, a spin-out of UCL whose team includes world-class academic founders and a deeply experienced semiconductor executive, is developing a novel, fast and lower power memory technology for embedded computation applications. This project aims to advance Intrinsic's technology in a new way such that it can deliver order-of-magnitude improvements in the power and performance of computers supporting quantum systems. For digital computing systems, performance gains will be achieved by developing Intrinsic's embedded non-volatile memory to reduce the memory bottleneck by bringing the required program or coefficient memory on chip in ways not possible with existing Flash technology. This dramatically improves both cost and power consumption by reducing the energy and latency of memory transfers. Further, this project will also explore more radical and innovative improvements that come from exploiting analogue computing. Intrinsic's memristors have analogue memory properties that are fundamental to analogue compute architectures. Prior tests suggest that our technology is compatible with cryogenic operation, producing minimal heat dissipation. This project will first further develop and characterise our technology for digital applications, including at cryogenic temperatures. We will then explore the analogue properties of the devices and their suitability, also at cryogenic temperatures, as key components of analogue systems suitable for quantum control algorithms. Analogue computing could provide significant boost to what is possible 'in chamber' bringing huge benefits to the performance of cryogenic quantum systems.

Realisation of the transformational benefits quantum computing can bring depends critically on the performance of classical computing needed to support it. Support is needed both for the control systems that maintain the systems in their quantum states as well as for the error correction systems that decode the desired results from noisy data. One of the main challenges in providing this classical computational support is the unwanted transfer of heat to the cryogenic chamber. This flows through the cabling needed for sensor and control data into and out of the chamber and is generated by power dissipation within control electronics in the chamber itself. The heat load in the chamber can be minimised by doing as much of the computation as possible in the cryogenic environment, but this is limited by the power consumption of the control and error correction electronics. A further constraint on the classical processing is that in many systems it must be done extremely quickly, i.e. within the decoherence time of the quantum system -- typically tens of microseconds. Intrinsic, a spin-out of UCL whose team includes world-class academic founders and a deeply experienced semiconductor executive, is developing a novel, fast and lower power memory technology for embedded computation applications. This project aims to advance Intrinsic's technology in a new way such that it can deliver order-of-magnitude improvements in the power and performance of computers supporting quantum systems. For digital computing systems, performance gains will be achieved by developing Intrinsic's embedded non-volatile memory to reduce the memory bottleneck by bringing the required program or coefficient memory on chip in ways not possible with existing Flash technology. This dramatically improves both cost and power consumption by reducing the energy and latency of memory transfers. Further, this project will also explore more radical and innovative improvements that come from exploiting analogue computing. Intrinsic's memristors have analogue memory properties that are fundamental to analogue compute architectures. Prior tests suggest that our technology is compatible with cryogenic operation, producing minimal heat dissipation. This project will first further develop and characterise our technology for digital applications, including at cryogenic temperatures. We will then explore the analogue properties of the devices and their suitability, also at cryogenic temperatures, as key components of analogue systems suitable for quantum control algorithms. Analogue computing could provide significant boost to what is possible 'in chamber' bringing huge benefits to the performance of cryogenic quantum systems.