Earl Campbell, VP of Quantum Science at Riverlane

Earl Campbell, VP of Quantum Science at Riverlane, is interviewed by Yuval Boger, discussing various aspects of quantum computing:

Read the full transcript or listen to the episode here.

Role at Riverlane: Earl Campbell focuses on building systems for error correction, control systems, and quantum algorithms at Riverlane to make quantum computing more practical and efficient.

Main Challenges in Quantum Computing: Earl identifies the biggest hurdles as creating reliable qubits in sufficient numbers and the infrastructure needed for their reliability. He emphasizes the increasing noise issues as systems scale to hundreds of qubits.

Collaboration with Hardware Partners: Earl explains Riverlane's role in helping hardware partners with error correction, including designing experiments, decoding, and real-time decoding experiments. Riverlane also offers integrated control and decode systems for error correction.

Decoding in Error Correction: Decoding is critical in quantum error correction, processing large volumes of measurement data from qubits to identify and correct errors. This decoding can be real-time or post-experiment, with the speed of decoding affecting the quantum computer's speed.

Physical to Logical Qubits Conversion: The number of physical qubits needed for a high-quality logical qubit depends on factors like error correction code, qubit noise levels, and decoder efficiency. Earl uses the example of needing around 1000 physical qubits for a logical qubit in an optimistic scenario.

Market Readiness and Error Correction: Earl discusses the current market's readiness for their technology, explaining that many partners are still learning to implement error correction effectively. He also touches on IBM's roadmap and the challenges of different qubit modalities.

Quantum Computing's 'Big Moment': Earl compares quantum computing's significant breakthroughs to AI's evolution, suggesting that the industry has already seen important milestones, like Google's logical qubit demonstration, but still awaits more.

Modalities in Quantum Computing: Earl acknowledges that different qubit types have unique advantages and challenges. He mentions recent advances in neutral atoms and predicts that they might be the first to handle tens of thousands of qubits.

Read the full transcript or listen to the episode here.