Mediaboss Marketing

There are very few words used more right now in tech publications than the word quantum. There are also very few words that are more difficult to understand. Quantum can refer to several things. How do quantum mechanics relate to quantum effects or quantum computers? What is quantum computing, when will it be available, and is it the security threat many say it is?

It seems like quantum is the buzzword in tech these days with big companies and governments investing billions in research into quantum technology and its applications. But understanding the goal of all these investments and what the current state-of-the-art of quantum technology is, is far from trivial.

For starters, there are many aspects to the field of quantum technology. It all starts with quantum mechanics that cause quantum effects, which are used to create quantum computers that can run quantum algorithms. And it doesnt get any simpler from there. Do you know the difference between quantum crypto and post-quantum crypto? No need to worry if you dont, because few people do.

Needless to say, combining the hype of everything quantum with the confusion around all different aspects of an immensely complex technology is leading to very creative and misleading marketing activities. If you believe everything you find online, there is no way your company will be able to survive without investing in some kind of security against quantum attacks right now. And who are you to say that this is not true? Do you understand the intricacies of something as complicated as quantum technology? So, you must rely on the statements of these experts, right? Maybe you do, but maybe not. One thing you should do is at least try to sort out what is real and what is not from all the hype making the rounds.

For example, be aware that there is no clear timeline on when these quantum computers will actually become useful. Some early-stage quantum computers exist in high-end research laboratories, but this does not mean that they can be used for running algorithms that are changing the world as we know it not yet. There have been breakthroughs in the field of quantum computing since as early as the 1990s, but as of today, a usable quantum computer still does not exist. Yes, research is speeding up with those billions of dollars in investments, but that does not mean our world will be turned upside down tomorrow. And this is only one of many aspects that is probably less of a worry for you than you might have expected, given what you may have read or heard.

To provide some help in these confusing times, PUF Cafe, the online community about Physical Unclonable Functions or PUF technology, is organizing a webinar to shine a light on some of the different aspects of quantum technology and the impact this technology will have on cryptographic security. If you want to learn more about the relationship between quantum and crypto and the threats posed to the current security state-of-the-art, you can sign up here to attend this free webinar live on June 30th, or become a member of the PUF Cafe community (also free) and enjoy access to the PUF Cafe database of webinars available on replay.

This webinar is the fifth episode in the PUF Cafe Episodes, a web series about security challenges and PUF technology.

The webinar will discuss:

Who should attend:

More here:
What Are the Quantum Computing Threats to Security? - Design and Reuse - Design and Reuse

Quantum computers put a high demand on their underlying material.

However, superconductors present a way of conducting electricity without resistance once cooled to sufficiently low temperatures, which is why they're an ideal resource in a world trying it's hardest to reduce energy consumption. But a newly discovered and rare kind of superconductors could change the course of quantum computers.

A group of researchers discovered a new and rare topological superconductor called LaPt3P, and it could become central to the nascent industry of quantum computing, according to a recent study published in the journalNature Communications.

Superconductors exhibit quantum properties on the scale of common, everyday objects, which makes them highly promising candidates for constructing computers that use quantum physics to store data and perform computing operations so advanced that they substantially outperform even the latest supercomputers in some areas. This has caused a surge in demand from leading tech companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google, and more to scale quantum computers to the industrial level via superconductors.

The study's research comes from researchers at the University of Kent, in addition to STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Before their discovery, superconductors had hit a snag. The elementary units of quantum computers (qubits) are highly sensitive, and easily lose their quantum properties from electromagnetic fields, in addition to collisions with air particles, and heat. One way to protect qubits from these effects involves creating more resilient versions with a special class of superconductors: Topological ones, which host protected metallic states on their surfaces, or boundaries.

Topological superconductors like LaPt3P were discovered through muon spin relaxation experiments, in tandem with highly complex theoretical analysis. To verify that the properties of the new superconductor weren't a fluke borne of instrument or sample accident, the research team used two different sets of samples, prepared in ETH Zurich and the University of Warwick. Then the team performed muon experiments at two different kinds of muon facilities: one in PSI, Switzerland, and another in the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

"This discovery of the topological superconductor LaPt3P has tremendous potential in the field of quantum computing," said Sudeep Kumar Ghosh, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Kent and the principal investigator of the new study. "Discovery of such a rare and desired component demonstrates the importance of muon research for the everyday world around us." And this comes on the heels of a major breakthrough in quantum computing. This February, researchers sent entangled qubit states via communication cable linking one quantum network's node to another. "Developing methods that allow us to transfer entangled states will be essential to quantum computing," said Professor Andrew Cleland, lead scientist of the study behind this study, in a blog post on UChicago's website.

In other words, with a newly-discovered superconducting material overcoming fundamental snags to quantum computers, and "top-floor" advances already finding success communicating between quantum network nodes, the dawn of quantum computers capable of not only solving highly-complex theoretical physics, but also transforming our communications infrastructures, is closer now more than ever before.

Link:
Scientists Discovered of a Rare Superconductor That Could Change the Course of Quantum Computing - Interesting Engineering

Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021.

The thing that really attracted me to Formula 1 is that its always been about data and technology, says Graeme Hackland, Williams Group IT director and chief information officer of Williams Racing.

Since joining the motorsport racing team in 2014, Hackland has been putting that theory into practice. He is pursuing what he refers to as a data-led digital transformation agenda that helps the organizations designers and engineers create a potential competitive advantage for the teams drivers on race day.

Hackland explains to VentureBeat how Williams F1 is looking to exploit data to make further advances up the grid and how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, might help in that process.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

VentureBeat: Whats the aim of your data-led transformation process?

Graeme Hackland: Ten years ago, we might have been putting four major package upgrades on the car a year. Were now able to do that much more quickly, and we dont have to wait for big packages of changes. Our digital transformation has been focused on shortening that life cycle. Thats about getting something from a designers brain onto the car as quickly as possible. Test it on a Friday; if its good, it stays. If its not, we refine it, and just keep doing that through the season. And that process has gone really well.

VentureBeat: What kind of data technology are you using to support that process?

Hackland: Some of it is what you would in some industries consider standard data warehousing and business intelligence tools. Some of that is written in-house. At the moment, I dont have a piece of middleware that lies across the whole layer. But thats where we want to head to, so that absolutely everything is feeding into that.

VentureBeat: What would that piece of middleware look like?

Hackland: We originally thought of three main domains: design, manufacturing, and race engineering. And you would have these three bubbles that would all talk to each other. But what weve realized is trying to create data lakes just hasnt worked. It hasnt given us the actual intelligence that we wanted, so we often refer to data puddles. Its much better to have many of these puddles that are well-structured and the data is well understood. And then, through a middleware layer, we can get to the graphical user interfaces.

VentureBeat: What does that layer of information mean for the Williams F1 teams engineers?

Hackland: Were covering everything, from what they look at through to the data structure. And the data structure has been one of our biggest challenges. We relied heavily on Microsoft Excel, and pulling data from all these other sources into Excel was very manual it took too long. So thats the piece of work that weve been doing. Weve not made it public who were working with in that area. Talking publicly about some of the stuff were doing around data and computation, were just not ready yet.

VentureBeat: How do you work out the build vs. buy question?

Hackland: When I got to Williams, we were largely buy-only. We built an in-house capability across three groups: manufacturing, aerodynamics, and race engineering. So they have embedded development groups, and I think thats really important. We considered whether we were going to create a centralized development function. But actually, we feel having them in those three groups is really important. And then as you build those groups, the pendulum swings from buy-only because youve got the capability in-house. The default now is that we will always develop our own if we can. Where theres a genuine competitive advantage, wed develop it ourselves.

VentureBeat: Where might you choose to buy data technologies?

Hackland: Some of the tools that we use trackside are off-the-shelf. Its not all in-house-written, because it doesnt make sense to write your own in some areas. But if you dont write your own applications, youre also accepting that these applications are used by multiple teams. If its a race-engineering application, its probably used across Formula 1 and maybe in other formulas as well. So then you cant customize it and you cant get competitive advantage out of it because everyone else has access to it too. So sometimes well use those as maybe a front end and then well be doing other things in the background. When you start to combine that data with other information, thats when theres a real competitive advantage, and thats where weve put our internal resources.

VentureBeat: What about AI? Is that a technology youre investigating?

Hackland: None of the teams are talking about AI except in passing; theyre just mentioning that AI is being used. None of us want to talk about it yet, and where were applying it. But what weve said publicly is that there are some really interesting challenges that AI can logically be applied to and you get benefits straightaway. So pit stops, the rulebook there are roles that AI can play.

VentureBeat: Can you give me a sense of how AI might be applied in F1?

Hackland: Initially, to augment humans to give engineers more accurate data to work with, or to shortcut their decision-making process so that they can make the right decision more frequently. I felt, even five years ago, that it would be possible that AI could make a pit stop decision without any human intervention. So that is possible, but I dont believe any of the teams will be doing it this year, and we wont. The engineers are not ready, and the humans are not ready to be replaced by AI. So that might take a little bit of time to show them that we can. I think theres still that reluctance to completely hand over the decision-making process, and I can understand that.

VentureBeat: What about other areas of emerging technology?

Hackland: From my perspective, quantum computing is a really exciting opportunity to take computation to a whole new level. And if we can get in there early before the other teams, I think well have a real advantage. There are interesting things happening with some [racing] organizations around that. Once again, were not talking about it publicly, but quantum is completely awesome. I think quantum will take a while. I dont want to be sitting here saying that in the next two years that were going to be developing, designing, and running the car and doing the race analytics on a quantum computer. But a hybrid computer that has quantum elements to it? Absolutely, and within a couple of years. Im really excited about what were doing already.

Visit link:
Williams F1 drives digital transformation in racing with AI, quantum - VentureBeat

highlighting select Tower Semiconductor and Partners papers at IMS and RFICJune 2021

MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel, - June 15, 2021 Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ/TASE: TSEM), the leading foundry of high-value analog semiconductor solutions, today announced technology papers at IMS 2021 and co-hosted RFIC conferenceaddressingemerging and high-volume semiconductor markets; and in all cases demonstrating breakthrough figure of merit performances using Tower Semiconductor process device technologies.

The selected publications use Tower Semiconductors RF and millimeter-wave technologies to address the needs of communications markets including 5G, millimeter-wave RF, satellite communications, and quantum computing. These path-breaking works include novel technology demonstrations of low noise amplifiers; phased arrays and beam steering, wide frequency band RF components, millimeter-wave frequency capable switches & new switch configurations, full 5G demonstrations, and even cryogenic circuits with record phase noise for quantum computing. Paper titles, links to the abstracts and IMS/RFIC related schedules are listed below.

In addition, the Company will take part in the exhibitors virtual talks, scheduled for Monday, June 21, 2021, from 09:00 to 18:00 at AUDITORIUM 6. Towers presentation: Accelerate beyond 5G with Tower, will be presented by Dr. Amol Kalburge, Sr. Director, Analog Marketing and will address the 5G market rapid adoption, showcasing the Companys complete portfolio of solutions, both in silicon and in design enablement, to help catalyze this accelerating demand. The session will specifically cover Towers RF Front End SOI and SiGe solutions and discuss how its revolutionary Phase Change Materials (PCM) switch technology is ready to enable a new class of innovative products.

For additional information on the IMS 2021 online event and complete program, please visit the events website here.

*List of papers, abstract links and IMS/RFIC presentation schedule:

Novel Phase Change Material RF Switches for 5G & millimeter-wave:

Quantum Computing:

SiGe BiCMOS for 5G, Satellite Communications, mmWave phased arrays:

List of papers can also be accessed from the Companys website by using this link.

For more information about Tower Semiconductors RF technology platform, visit here.

About Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM), the leading foundry of high value analog semiconductor solutions, provides technology and manufacturing platforms for integrated circuits (ICs) in growing markets such as consumer, industrial, automotive, mobile, infrastructure, medical and aerospace and defense. Tower Semiconductor focuses on creating positive and sustainable impact on the world through long term partnerships and its advanced and innovative analog technology offering, comprised of a broad range of customizable process platforms such as SiGe, BiCMOS, mixed-signal/CMOS, RF CMOS, CMOS image sensor, non-imaging sensors, integrated power management (BCD and 700V), and MEMS. Tower Semiconductor also provides world-class design enablement for a quick and accurate design cycle as well as Transfer Optimization and development Process Services (TOPS) to IDMs and fabless companies. To provide multi-fab sourcing and extended capacity for its customers, Tower Semiconductor operates two manufacturing facilities in Israel (150mm and 200mm), two in the U.S. (200mm) and three facilities in Japan (two 200mm and one 300mm) through TPSCo. For more information, please visit:www.towersemi.com.

###Tower Semiconductor Company Contact: Orit Shahar | +972-74-7377440 | oritsha@towersemi.comTower Semiconductor Investor Relations Contact: Noit Levy | +972-4-604-7066 | noitle@towersemi.com

See more here:
Tower to Present at 2021 IMS Addressing the Future of - GlobeNewswire

Fraunhofer Institute have just unveiled the Quantum System One, the country's first superconducting quantum computer built by IBM.

Five years after IBM made its first five-qubit quantum processor available for users to access over the cloud, the company is now showing off the first quantum computer that it has physically built outside of its New York-based data centers.

All the way across the Atlantic, scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have just unveiled the IBM Quantum System One the country's first superconducting quantum computer that Big Blue was contracted to build especially for the organization.

The device, which contains one of IBM's 27-qubit Falcon processors, came online a few weeks ago and has already been made available to Fraunhofer's scientists and some of the institute's partners. German academics and organizations outside of Fraunhofer will, from now on, be welcome to arrange monthly contracts to use the computer too for research, education and training purposes.

Fraunhofer's partnership with IBM was signed last year, marking the start of a global expansion for Big Blue's quantum hardware. The company released the Quantum System One in 2019, pitching it as the world's first commercial quantum computer; but until now, users have only accessed the device over the cloud, by connecting to IBM's Quantum Computation Center located in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Physically bringing the hardware to a new location for the first time was never going to be easy and the global COVID-19 pandemic only added some extra hurdles. Typically, explains Bob Sutor, chief quantum exponent at IBM, the company would've shipped some key parts and a team of in-house specialists to Germany to assemble the quantum computer, but the pandemic meant that this time, everything had to be done remotely.

IBM's engineers had to rely on NASA-inspired methods of remote assembly. "How do you train people that are thousands of miles away, when you can't just run up to them and say: 'Do this'?" Sutor tells ZDNet. "We had to train local teams remotely and work with them remotely to assemble everything and get this machine running. We developed new techniques to actually put these systems around the world without travelling there. And it worked."

To train German engineers from the local IBM development lab, Sutor's team put together a virtual course in quantum assembly. From installing the computer's refrigeration system to manipulating the Falcon processor, no detail was left out and the device successfully launched in line with the original schedule.

For Fraunhofer, this means that the institute and its partners will now have access to a leading-edge quantum computer built exclusively for German organizations, instead of relying on cloud access to US-based systems.

Since the partnership was announced, the institute has been busy investigating potential applications of quantum computing and designing quantum algorithms that might show an advantage over computations carried out with classical computing.

This is because quantum computing is nascent, and despite the huge potential that researchers are anticipating, much of the technology's promise is still theoretical. Existing quantum processors like IBM's Falcon come with too few qubits and too high an error-rate to resolve large-scale problems that are relevant to businesses. The research effort, therefore, consists of spotting the use-cases that might be suited to the technology once the hardware is ready.

"For users, they need to get in now, they need to understand what quantum computers are, what they're useful for and what are viable approaches using quantum computers that will get them an advantage over using classical computing," says Sutor.

At Fraunhofer, researchers have been looking at a variety of applications ranging from portfolio optimization in finance to logistics planning for manufacturers, through error correction protocols that could improve critical infrastructure and molecular simulation to push chemistry and materials discovery.

Working in partnership with the German Aerospace Center, for example, the institute has been conducting research to find out if quantum algorithmscould simulate electro-chemical processes within energy storage system which in turn could help design batteries and fuel cells with better performance and more energy density.

For Annkatrin Sommer, research coordinator at Fraunhofer, the choice of IBM as a quantum partner was a no-brainer. "We really wanted to go for cutting-edge technology where you have the ability to start developing algorithms as fast as possible," she tells ZDNet.

IBM's offer in quantum computing has some significant strengths. Since the release of its first cloud-based quantum processor, the company now has made over 20 Quantum System One machines available, which are accessed by more than 145 organizations around the world. Two billion quantum circuits are established daily with the cloud processors, and IBM is on track to break a trillion circuits before the end of the summer.

The Falcon processors used in the Quantum System One are 27 qubits, but the company is working in parallel on a chip called Hummingbird, which has 65 qubits. Big Blue recentlypublished a quantum hardware roadmapin which it pledged to achieve over 1,000 qubits by 2023 enough to start seeing the early results of quantum computing. Ultimately, IBM is aiming to produce a million-qubit quantum system.

"If I were to throw out a toy system and say: 'Here you go, play, I don't know if it'll ever get better' no one would care," says Sutor. "People need confidence that the machines and the software and apps on them will reasonably quickly be able to do work better than just classical computers."

For an institute like Fraunhofer, the rapid scaling of quantum technologies that IBM is promising is appealing. And the German organization is not alone in placing its bets on Big Blue. This year will also see an IBM Quantum System One installed in Japanas part of a partnership with the University of Tokyo; and back in the US, the Cleveland Clinichas just placed a $500 million order for IBM to build quantum hardware on-premises.

But despite IBM's credentials, Fraunhofer's research team is also keen to stress that it is too early to tell which approach or approaches to quantum computing will show results first. The industry is expanding fast, and withnew companies jumping on the quantum bandwagon every so often, it is hard to differentiate between hype and reality.

This is why, in addition to investing in IBM's superconducting qubits, Fraunhofer is also investigating the use of different approaches like ion traps or diamond.

"Currently, it's not clear which technology will be the best," says Sommer, "and we will probably have different technologies working in parallel for different use cases. It makes sense to start projects with different approaches and after some time, measure how far you got and if you reached your goals. Then, you decide with which technology you should proceed."

It remains that Germany's shiny new Quantum System One puts the country in a favorable position to compete in what isincreasingly shaping to become a global race to lead in quantum computing.

The German government has already launched a 2 billion ($2.4 billion) funding program for the promotion of quantum technologies in the country, which comes in addition to the European Commission's 1 billion ($1.20 billion) quantum flagship.

Meanwhile, in the US, a $1.2 billion budget was allocated to the National Quantum Initiative Act in 2018. And China, for its part,has made no secret of its ambition to become a leading quantum superpower.

The UK government has also invested a total 1 billion ($1.37 billion) in a National Quantum Technologies Programme. In the next few years, the country is hoping to follow Germany's lead andlaunch its very first commercial quantum computer, which will be built by California-based company Rigetti Computing.

Read the rest here:
IBM's first quantum computer outside of the US has just gone live - ZDNet