Intel has claimed to have achieved a milestone in the quest for commercially viable quantum computers.

The Horse Ridge cryogenic control chip streamlines the systems used to control quantum bits, or qubits, something Intel explained will be necessary for scaling systems to hundreds of thousands or millions of qubits.

Currently, most research is focused on small-scale quantum systems that have used custom-designed control chips.

These generally involve extensive control cabling that extends outside the refrigeration units in which the qubits are maintained, connecting them to the traditional computational devices used to regulate the qubit’s performance and program systems.

Horse Ridge simplifies the control electronics required to operate the system, with the mixed-signal system-on-a-chip (SoC) operating within the quantum refrigerator itself, bringing the control electronics closer to the qubits.

The chip acts as a radio frequency processor programmed with instructions that correspond to basic qubit operations, a statement explained. It then translates those instructions into electromagnetic microwave pulses that can manipulate the state of the qubits.

Named after one of the coldest regions of Oregon, Horse Ridge can operate at about four Kelvin, just above the absolute zero temperatures at which even atoms stop moving.

The chip was developed with collaborators at QuTech, a partnership between TU Delft and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).It is manufactured using Intel’s 22nm FinFET technology.

Intel's director of quantum hardware Jim Clarke, admitted that the ability to control many qubits at the same time had been a challenge for the industry.

“With Horse Ridge, Intel has developed a scalable control system that will allow us to significantly speed up testing and realise the potential of quantum computing.”

Other companies investing in quantum computing include IBM, Microsoft and Google, with the latter announcing a chip called Bristlecone in March, aimed at demonstrating quantum systems’ theoretical performance edge over conventional supercomputers – a milestone known as 'quantum supremacy'.

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