Aharon Brodutch & Ilia Khait (Entangled Network): Optical links to scale quantum processors

Key takeaways

  • Scaling a single QPU past a few hundred qubits runs into wiring, cooling, and control density limits, so connecting multiple smaller chips may be more practical than building one giant chip
  • Optical interconnects can move quantum information between separate QPUs without forcing everything into one dilution fridge or one monolithic die
  • A compiler that understands the cost of inter-chip communication is as important as the physical link itself, since naive partitioning of circuits across chips destroys any advantage
  • Distributed quantum computing mirrors classical data center evolution, where networking became the bottleneck and the differentiator once single-node compute hit its limits

Summary

Aharon Brodutch and Ilia Khait, co-founders of Entangled Networks, a company building an optical interconnect between QPUs are interviewed by Yuval Boger. Aharon, Ilia, and Yuval talk about the efforts required to scale up quantum processors, their optimizing compiler, building a distributed quantum computer, and much more.