Alice & Bob Reports Cat-Qubit Progress in French Quantum Computing Program
AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication
Alice & Bob announced Phase 1 results of France’s PROQCIMA quantum‑computing programme, demonstrating core components of its cat‑qubit error‑correction architecture on three hardware demonstrators (two 6‑qubit chips and one 12‑qubit chip). The tests included noise‑biased CNOT gates, a measure‑and‑reset sequence for auxiliary qubits, repeated distance‑3 repetition‑code cycles, and a non‑Clifford gate, confirming each building block’s functionality. However, the measured logical error rate stayed above the error‑correction threshold. A digital twin model identified consistent qubit coherence as the primary improvement target, while the company’s proprietary monitoring‑and‑recalibration software tracked over 50 performance indicators per qubit and reduced drift‑correction downtime from a day to near‑real‑time. The programme aims to deliver two 1,000‑logical‑qubit universal computers by 2032, with Alice & Bob competing for continued funding after the four‑year assessment.
💡 Why It Matters
- · Extending coherent lifetimes is the decisive factor that will push Alice & Bob’s cat‑qubit platform from experimental validation to fault‑tolerant operation, positioning France as a frontrunner in the global race for scalable quantum computers.
