Riverlane, the global leader in quantum error correction technology, has been awarded a contract alongside Rigetti Computing, a pioneer in full stack quantum classical computing, to integrate elements of its Quantum Error Correction Stack into a new quantum computing testbed solution being built for the UK government.

In the NQCC project, Riverlane plans to integrate Deltaflow.Control with Rigetti’s 24-qubit quantum computer based on the Rigetti’s fourth generation Ankaa™-class architecture to execute individual qubit control and readout. The work falls under the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition delivered by Innovate UK with funding from the NQCC.

Riverlane’s Quantum Error Correction Stack, named ‘Deltaflow’, creates error-free logical qubits from many unstable physical qubits enabling large-scale applications to be built. It consists of two layers – a control system ‘Deltaflow.Control’ and the world’s most powerful decoder technology ‘Deltaflow.Decode’.

Steve Brierley, Founder & CEO of Riverlane said: “We’re thrilled that Riverlane will be a control system provider in this important government initiative, giving us the opportunity to build the next generation of Deltaflow.Control using Rigetti’s quantum hardware system. We’re equally thrilled to work with them to use our leading decoder technology, Deltaflow.Decode, with their proposed 24-qubit quantum computer.”

Furthermore, Riverlane plans to provide its new ‘Aqueduct’ software for the testbed project. Aqueduct enables users to manage the many tools, interfaces and data outputs from quantum computer experiments via one simple interface.

The aim of the competition is to deliver testbeds that accelerate the growth of user adoption in quantum computing and explore critical bottlenecks. Through the integration of its Quantum Error Correction Stack technology, Riverlane’s role in the project is to improve the qubit quality of the quantum computing testbed solution.

The integrated system will be deployed at NQCC’s Harwell Campus, which is due to open in 2024, and will be made available to NQCC researchers for testing, benchmarking, and exploratory applications development. The work will be completed over a set period of 15 months and each project will be allocated between £2 million to £7 million.

Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, CEO of Rigetti Computing, said: “Riverlane’s quantum error decoder will be an important component of our proposed 24-qubit Ankaa™ system. Rigetti and Riverlane are longtime collaborators, and being able to leverage their leading error control expertise continues to be a great asset as we continue to work towards building useful quantum computers.”