Quantum Machines’ founding team (pictured): Itamar Sivan (right), Yonaten Cohen (centre) and Nissim Ofek (left).
Can you tell us a bit about the company and its quantum hardware/software orchestration platform?
Many of the major players in the quantum industry are involved with and continue meaningful and important research into the development of quantum processors and exploring different hardware (such as superconducting qubits, trapped ions & atoms, NV centers, quantum dots, etc).
Quantum Machines, however, is not focused on creating a better quantum processor or improving qubit count.
There is a big, fundamental difference between quantum and classical processors, beyond entanglement and superposition. Unlike with classical computer processing units (CPUs) that are already embedded with logic, in a quantum computer, the logic is sent into the quantum processors via electromagnetic pulses.
Essentially, this means there must be a classical system to control the operation of the quantum processor. Before quantum teams can run experiments, and especially as the underlying quantum tech progresses, immense effort goes into building such control systems and often involves repurposing general-purpose test equipment, programming FPGAs, synching all the boxes, etc.
As quantum physicists ourselves, this became a significant bottleneck for us. To solve it, my two co-founders and I created QM in 2018. With our Quantum Orchestration Platform for quantum control, we now allow the scientists to sit back, plug in and run the wildest quantum experiments and algorithms [they can imagine] with no effort.
Quantum Orchestration Platform is an entirely new paradigm for the control of quantum processors. The OPX, its hardware portion, is a custom pulse processor. It works with our real-time intuitive programming language (QUA), which allows describing algorithms simply and straightforwardly.
Together, the hardware and software platform translates the algorithm into the orchestra of pulses and does the classical processing in the background while managing the algorithm’s control flow. With the Quantum Orchestration Platform, scientists and quantum computing teams can focus on the science instead of spending endless hours trying to configure the control stack for their experiments.
Quantum Machines was built by quantum physicists for quantum physicists and our focus is entirely on quantum computing. Our system has already been deployed with quite a few customers on every type of qubit platform. Quantum computing teams are coding their quantum systems with QUA on superconducting qubits, trapped ions, trapped atoms, NV centers, silicon qubits, topological qubits, mechanical resonators, etc.
We work with many leading companies, academic institutions and government labs worldwide and provide them with the entire quantum orchestration platform stack to maximise their quantum processors’ potential and improve their capabilities.
We have raised $23m to date from top-tier investors, have around 40 employees with more than a third being experimental quantum physicists, and we keep growing fast.
How did the concept come about – and what is the market opportunity for the technology?
Earlier in our careers as quantum researchers, while working on the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers, where the “magic” happens, we were astonished at just how difficult it was to “communicate” with quantum systems.
Making quantum systems run the operations or algorithms we wanted them to run required an incredible complexity of equipment configurations and not just because the science is challenging. In fact, it is because we were working with arbitrary wave generators (AWGs), lock-in amplifiers, digitisers and other tools designed for entirely different purposes. To run quantum computing experiments, we had no choice but to configure and repurpose this general-purpose lab equipment. This was incredibly challenging since we were wasting time trying to bend a screwdriver into a hammer instead of focusing on the science.
We realised that in order to accelerate quantum research, there was a need for a technology that is laser-focused on the demands of quantum computers and the needs of the scientists building and operating them. We created the Quantum Orchestration Platform to enable researchers to get the most out of their quantum systems. To allow them to efficiently run experiments that are simply impossible with the general-purpose test equipment.
Beyond that, since quantum computing is the greatest technological race of the 21st century, there is an even more significant technological challenge in orchestrating large-scale quantum computers with hundreds, thousands and even more qubits. The Quantum Orchestration Platform is built with this vision in mind and enables the most ambitious players in the field to control these large-scale quantum computers.
Building quantum control technology is a tremendous scientific and engineering undertaking. Our team is 100% dedicated to it so that the researchers who are building quantum computers can focus on the magnificent science of quantum processors. Already today, we see outstanding achievements by our customers and what impact our technology has on the outcome and pace of their research.
How large is the gap between Quantum Machines’ control technology and QUA language, and programming interfaces already used for high-performance computing techniques such as AI?
There is no relation between the interfaces you have mentioned and QM’s quantum control stack since the underlying tech is entirely different. As mentioned before, unlike classical processors, the logic of a quantum processor is not embedded within the processor itself. To control the quantum computer, we need a classical system that can send the logic operations to it. Immense effort goes into building such control systems, and it usually involves repurposing general-purpose lab equipment, electronic equipment like arbitrary wave generators (AWGs), programming FPGAs, synching different boxes, etc.
Quantum computing teams have to go through this vast, time and resource-heavy process only to control a couple of qubits. Imagine how difficult and impractical it is for scalable quantum systems with hundreds, thousands and potentially even millions of qubits.
QM’s Quantum Orchestration Platform (QOP) was tailor-made for quantum to enable extremely complex experiments right out of the box and at scale. It is an entirely new paradigm for the control of quantum processors.
Together, the hardware and software platform translates the algorithm into the orchestra of pulses and does the classical processing in the background while managing the algorithm’s control flow.
The gulf between these two methods cannot be overstated. Without our platform, researchers must spend long hours, sometimes months, of manual work repurposing the existing lab equipment only to run basic experiments. With the Quantum Orchestration Platform and QUA, they have a full quantum control stack which is also quantum hardware-agnostic – it works with all types of qubit platforms. It comes with a preinstalled pulse processor and a powerful, intuitive programming language native to quantum that enables researchers to perform extremely complex experiments in a fraction of the time.
Would you say Israel’s quantum computing sector can keep up with the country’s already strong reputation for innovation in areas such as cybersecurity?
I do not think “keeping up” is the right phrase for it as it would be an unfair comparison. The Israeli cybersecurity industry is already one of the most prominent and most dominant sectors in the country, establishing itself on the international stage as a global power for the last few decades. While not exactly new, quantum computing has started to hit its stride over the past few years and is at the relative beginning.
That said, I believe that with a significant concentration of brilliant scientists and programmers, Israel will establish itself as a quantum leader in the same way it has done for the cybersecurity industry. However, it still has a long way to go before it reaches that scale as a newer arrival.
What strengths would you say the country possesses in terms of quantum innovation, funding and talent?
One of Israel’s main advantages is that even though we are a small country, we have a large concentration of top scientists, engineers and programmers. When you combine the best of all disciplines, you get something that is more than the sum of its parts, and that is a massive boost in the innovation department.
On top of that, Israel’s startup ecosystem is world-renowned, providing excellent access to capital, strategic investors and unique know-how in venture-building, all of which contribute to a quantifiable advantage over other VC ecosystems found elsewhere in the world.
What are the biggest use-cases for this technology? Do you expect to specialise in specific quantum computing applications with your technology (if so, which areas do you plan to focus on)? Or is it too early to say?
Quantum computers hold great promise for unprecedented computational power well beyond the reach of current non-quantum technology. As the technology continues to develop as rapidly as it has over the last couple of decades, the once far away dream of harnessing this power seems closer now than ever before. Even the span of potential applications is continuously growing as researchers further develop more advanced quantum algorithms.
As a company, I do not expect us to specialise in any one field. We are here to help quantum scientists and researchers working across all areas to maximise their quantum hardware’s potential and capabilities. We will continue to work with all industry sectors to help them get the most out of their machines. Just like personal computers revolutionised practically every field since they became prevalent a few decades ago, we build the platform and toolset to enable researchers to go after their desired applications regardless of the specific industry or content.