The company’s “quantum decoder chip” is intended to help companies to deal with the high error rates in the technology

A Cambridge-based start-up with aspirations to become “the next Arm” is claiming a breakthrough that could speed up the development of the next generation of computers.

Riverlane, a spin-out from Cambridge University, said it had produced the first chip for quantum computers that could deal with one of the primary obstacles holding back their development and commercial adoption. The company’s “quantum decoder chip” is intended to help companies to deal with the high error rates inherent to the technology.

Steve Brierley, founder and chief executive of Riverlane, called the chip a huge breakthrough that gave the company “massive leadership” in the race to become “the next Arm”, the British chip designer that floated on Wall Street last week.