Intel Releases 12-qubit Quantum Research Chip

Intel has released a new 12-qubit quantum research chip, Tunnel Falls, to the quantum research community.

“Tunnel Falls is Intel’s most advanced silicon spin qubit chip to date and draws upon the company’s decades of transistor design and manufacturing expertise,” said Intel director of quantum hardware Jim Clarke.

“The release of the new chip is the next step in Intel’s long-term strategy to build a full-stack commercial quantum computing system. While there are still fundamental questions and challenges that must be solved along the path to a fault-tolerant quantum computer, the academic community can now explore this technology and accelerate research development.”

Intel is providing Tunnel Falls so researchers can immediately begin working on experiments and research as most academic institutions do not have the facilities to build their own devices. Potential experiments include learning more about the fundamentals of qubits and quantum dots and developing new techniques for working with devices with multiple qubits.

Intel is also collaborating with the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) at the University of Maryland, College Park’s Qubit Collaboratory (LQC), a national-level Quantum Information Sciences (QIS) Research Center, to advance quantum computing research.

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Intel and LQC are also working together as part of the Qubits for Computing Foundry program through the U.S. Army Research Office to provide Intel’s new quantum chip to research laboratories. The initiative aims to strengthen workforce development, open the doors to new quantum research and grow the overall quantum ecosystem.

The first quantum labs to participate in the program include LPS, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Rochester, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.