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The Sydney installation tests Diraq’s infrastructure pitch: increase computing capacity by replacing the processor, rather than rebuilding the space around it.
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Diraq is using its Sydney installation to demonstrate a scaling approach based on replacing the quantum processor rather than expanding the surrounding data-center infrastructure. The current eight-qubit system uses less than 20 kilowatts across 170 square feet; Diraq’s next target is up to 256 qubits in the same deployment within a year. The approach could reduce facility costs as systems grow, though the company’s utility-scale power, footprint and price figures are targets, not demonstrated results.
Diraq says future utility-scale systems could draw around 300 kilowatts, occupy as little as 50 square feet and cost at most tens of millions of dollars.
Equinix’s Harmeen Mehta called the installation a proof point for operating quantum systems alongside infrastructure already used by enterprises.
Diraq’s medicine analysis models a 10-percentage-point rise in trial success rates as potentially enabling up to 25 additional medicines annually in a US-sized market.
Diraq’s quantum computer is now running inside an Equinix commercial data center in Sydney, putting its hardware alongside infrastructure used by businesses. Announced November 9, the eight-qubit installation is the starting point for a larger ambition: upgrading the quantum processor while keeping changes to the surrounding facility to a minimum.
The company calls it the world’s first silicon spin quantum computer deployed inside a commercial data center. That claim is specific to Diraq’s technology, not quantum computing as a whole.
Diraq’s design uses the same semiconductor manufacturing processes used for conventional computer chips. Its proposed path to more computing power is to replace the quantum processor, with minimal alterations to the equipment around it. The company presents that approach as a way to avoid costly infrastructure expansion as its systems grow.
The next stated milestone is up to 256 qubits in the same deployed system within a year.
Diraq expects a future utility-scale system to draw around 300 kilowatts, while future deployments could occupy as little as 50 square feet.
Equinix’s chief digital and innovation officer, Harmeen Mehta, described the installation as a proof point for quantum systems operating alongside infrastructure enterprises already use. The host facility serves industries including banking, healthcare, utilities, manufacturing and retail.
Diraq is also targeting a price of at most tens of millions of dollars for its utility-scale systems.
Alongside the deployment, Diraq released Quantum at Work, a report exploring potential applications in medicine, energy, materials, climate and transport. Its medicine analysis asks what better clinical-trial success rates could mean financially and for patients. It models a possible benefit, rather than reporting a drug-discovery outcome from the installed computer.
The analysis draws on a 2010 industry cost study published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery and FDA approval data.
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