The AT&T Foundry innovation centre in Palo Alto, California announced that it is teaming with the California Institute of Technology to form the Alliance for Quantum Technologies (AQT), with the aims of bringing together industry, government and academia to accelerate the development of quantum technology and to address practical applications.
The collaboration will also establish a research and development program named INQNET (INtelligent Quantum NEtworks and Technologies), which will focus on meeting demand for capacity and security in communications leveraging advanced quantum networking technologies.
Under the new initiative, AT&T and Caltech, through AQT and INQNET, are seeking to create the model for technology development between academic institutions, industry and national laboratories. One of the first demonstrations of intelligent and quantum network technologies will involve quantum entanglement distribution and benchmarking and validation studies utilising commercial fibre provided by AT&T.
AT&T noted that quantum networking is expected to enable a new era of super-fast, secure networking, and through the AT&T Foundry it will support testing of relevant technologies for commercial applications.
AT&T explained that quantum computers will be unlike current systems, being effectively complex physics experiments employing cryogenics for cooling, lasers and other solid-state, electronic, optical and atomic devices. As a result, transitioning quantum computing from the R&D lab into the real world for practical applications will mean solving numerous technical and engineering challenges.
The science behind quantum computing is complex, extending across disciplines such as physics, engineering, computer science and applied mathematics, with the fundamental concept involving the application of the laws of quantum mechanics to processing and distributing information.
Such quantum computing systems are expected to provide exponentially greater computing power, while quantum networking entails linking quantum computers and devices together to create faster and more secure networks with capabilities beyond what is possible using conventional processors.
