ORCA Computing, in collaboration with BT Group, hosted a demonstration day at BT Group’s R&D centre – Adastral Park in Ipswich for businesses, universities, data centre providers and users. Unveiling the vision of the ‘Quantum Data Centre of the Future’ (QDCF) project, the day showcased technology innovations to demonstrate how quantum communication and computing systems can integrate with classical data centres.

Spearheaded by ORCA Computing and supported by a consortium of 14 organisations and universities with backing from Innovate UK, the project aims to nurture the development of practical computing and security applications while establishing a blueprint for the quantum data centre of the future. With BT Group and KETS leading the architecture and communications project, partners including Riverlane, PQShield, NCC Group, BP, Digital Catapult, National Composites Centre (NCC), University College London, University of Bristol, Imperial College London, University of Bath and University of Southampton showcased the project’s latest innovations and achievements.

Central to the event was the presentation of a hybrid quantum-classical data centre architecture and the introduction of the quantum technology access programme, which set the stage for a series of state-of-the-art technology demonstrations including:

• ORCA Computing: PT-1 photonic quantum computer running a hybrid quantum-classical machine learning algorithm with GPUs, involving NVIDIA CUDA’s quantum demo.
• KETS and PQShield: hybrid QKD/PQC point to point link and entropy as a service with integrated post quantum cryptography.
• Riverlane: resource estimation tool which provides estimates for the number of qubits and time required for running a Computational Fluid Dynamics application on a fault-tolerant quantum computer.
• The University of Bath: hollow core optical fibre cell, which has been designed and fabricated for use in quantum memory.
• The University of Bristol: integration of different quantum key distribution (QKD) solutions, facilitating both intra-data centre and multi-access security.
• The University College London: the accuracy of computation when distributing a task among several quantum computers.

Richard Murray, PhD, Co-founder, and CEO of ORCA Computing said: “It’s been a highly successful day, with attendees actively engaged in discussions surrounding the challenges and opportunities presented by integrating quantum technologies into secure data centre environments. The valuable feedback and insights garnered will be instrumental in creating hybrid quantum/classical use cases moving forward.”

Andrew Lord, Senior Manager, Optical Networks and Quantum Research, BT Group said: “The Quantum Data Centre of the Future project represents a significant step towards developing a quantum internet, with access to quantum resources in future data centres. Even before full-scale quantum computers are available, it is crucial to prove that they can be fully integrated into the next generation internet”.