Why is the government betting big on a technology that promises much, but has so far delivered little?
Amid the hum of cooling fans and squelch of vacuum pumps, a new home for 12 quantum computers has opened in Oxfordshire, as part of a bid to put the UK ahead in a global race to harness the technology.
Quantum computers promise to solve problems too hard for even the most powerful supercomputers – like those requiring vast numbers of parallel computations like complex weather simulations, the binding of drugs to their targets, or the vagaries of financial markets.
While prototypes have proven that the weird world of quantum matter can be used to perform calculations – none are yet large or stable enough to be of much use.
“With its focus on making quantum computers practically useable at scale, this centre will help them solve some of the biggest challenges we face,” said science minister Lord Vallance.
Quantum computers exploit the strangeness of quantum physics to replace the “bits” – zeros and ones – that encode information in classical computers with something fundamentally different.
If manipulated in the right way, matter can be coaxed into quantum bits – or qubits – that can be both a zero and a one at the same time.
This power, and the fact qubits can become “entangled,” or interact with each other means a relatively small number of qubits can perform more calculations in parallel than a classical computer chip ever could.
However, even the slightest interference from the outside world can destroy a fragile qubit, so building groups of them large enough that last long enough to make a reliable computer is a major challenge.
The new National Quantum Computing Centre at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell is designed to accelerate that research.
The 4,000-square-metre facility is designed to host multiple competing designs of quantum computer and around a hundred scientists working on them.
Some commercial, others developed by university teams – to try to solve hardware and software problems in parallel.
“The UK National Quantum Computing Centre is central to this critical work, bringing together internationally leading researchers and technologists from across academia and industry to ensure that the UK’s quantum computing ecosystem thrives,” said Prof Dame Ottoline Leyser, chief executive of UK Research and Innovation that is funding the centre.
Competition is fierce. Big tech firms like Google, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon are all investing in quantum technology. So too are other states, led by China, which directs more government funding into the field than anyone else.
The potential for quantum computers to crack the encryption tools used to keep most online traffic secure gave rise to the term “Q-day” – when the first machine emerges with the capability to decrypt the internet.
It’s still some way off, but helps explain why governments are interested in betting big on a technology that promises much, but has so far delivered little.