Alice & Bob, a company specializing in quantum computing, has released its first white paper and accompanying five-year roadmap. The document highlights the company’s strategy to develop practical quantum computing using its proprietary cat qubit technology. This technology aims to achieve high-fidelity logical qubits with lower hardware and energy demands than other approaches.
The roadmap includes five milestones that the company plans to achieve to deliver a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2030:
- Milestone 1: Master the Cat Qubit
This milestone, completed in 2024 with the Boson chip series, introduced a reproducible cat qubit capable of storing quantum information while reducing bit-flip errors. - Milestone 2: Build a Logical Qubit
Currently under development with the Helium chip series, this stage focuses on achieving the company’s first error-corrected logical qubit that operates below the error-correction threshold. - Milestone 3: Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing
The upcoming Lithium chip series will scale multi-logical-qubit systems and enable the demonstration of the first error-corrected logical gate. - Milestone 4: Universal Quantum Computing
The Beryllium chip series is designed to support a universal set of logical gates through magic state factories and live error correction, paving the way for running diverse quantum algorithms. - Milestone 5: Practical Quantum Advantage
The graphene chip series, featuring 100 high-fidelity logical qubits, is expected to deliver a quantum computer capable of demonstrating a quantum advantage in early industrial applications. The system will integrate with existing high-performance computing facilities.
“Our roadmap lays out a clear path to solving quantum’s toughest engineering challenges,” said Raphael Lescanne, CTO and co-founder of Alice & Bob. “Quantum computing can seem opaque, but it shouldn’t be. This white paper makes our technology and roadmap accessible for engineers, business leaders, and tech enthusiasts alike.”
The white paper “Think Inside the Box: Quantum Computing with Cat Qubits“ explains how Alice & Bob’s approach addresses common challenges in quantum computing, such as scalability and error correction. The document emphasizes the potential for quantum computing to address problems beyond the capabilities of classical computing, including applications in simulations, machine learning, and materials science. Key industries such as finance, healthcare, and cybersecurity are identified as potential beneficiaries of the technology.
Alice & Bob’s cat qubits aim to overcome a significant obstacle in the field: the need for extensive error correction. These superconducting chips use an active stabilization mechanism that minimizes errors, such as bit flips. By simplifying error correction from a two-dimensional problem to a one-dimensional one, Alice & Bob can produce logical qubits with 99.9999% fidelity — what the company describes as “6-nines” quality — while reducing resource demands.
“Quantum computing should be a tool for solving useful problems in science and industry,” said Théau Peronnin, CEO and co-founder of Alice & Bob. “This white paper shows how Alice & Bob’s cat qubits can bring that vision to life in a practical way by the decade’s end.”
