QinetiQ teams with Intel to develop quantum chips

QinetiQ, the former research lab of the UK's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, is collaborating with US chip giant Intel on a two-year project to develop a high-performance processor.

The two companies will look into transistor technology that could help develop microprocessors in the middle of the next decade.

Researchers from the two companies have already built "quantum well" transistors using a new material, pioneered by QinetiQ, which allows devices to operate at very low voltages.

According to Intel and QuinetiQ, transistors made from this material would be able to switch rapidly, in order to represent the binary 1s and 0s that all computers work with.

Research results obtained from the quantum well transistor research showed 10 times lower power consumption for the same performance, or a three times improvement in transistor performance for the same power consumption when compared with today’s traditional transistors.