Cisco Systems unveiled a prototype chip designed to network quantum computers together and announced the opening of a new lab in Santa Monica, California, to further advance quantum computing. The chip utilizes similar technology as current networking chips and aims to connect smaller quantum computers into larger systems. Cisco foresees practical applications before widespread adoption of quantum computers, such as assisting financial institutions in trading synchronization or aiding scientists in meteorite detection. Vijoy Pandey, senior vice president of Cisco’s Outshift innovation incubator, highlighted various potential use cases, emphasizing the need for clock synchronization and timestamps across global snapshots.
Cisco joins other major tech companies like Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft, and Amazon in the quantum computing realm, while Nvidia plans to establish its own quantum computing lab. Startups, including PsiQuantum, are also securing substantial funding for system development. While these companies focus on increasing the number of “qubits” for quantum computers, Cisco is concentrating on linking them together. The company’s chip, developed in collaboration with researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara, induces quantum entanglement in paired photons and sends one photon to each of two separate quantum computers. This enables the quantum computers to communicate instantaneously for a brief period, regardless of their geographical distance—a concept known as “spooky action at a distance,” as described by Albert Einstein.
Cisco notes that the timeline for revenue generation from the chip is not yet defined, as it remains a prototype. Pandey emphasized the significance of the entanglement chip as the initial building block for establishing a quantum network.
