A team at the University of Bristol School of Physics in the UK are hooking up a quantum processor to the internet.

 

The online quantum processor called Qcloud will be remotely controllable by anyone anywhere in the world. The hope is that it will provide an opportunity for the next generation of engineers, mathematicians, scientists and entrepreneurs to run experiments, and test real experimental data against their simulations, making quantum computing resources available for everybody. This will make it the world’s first open-access quantum processor

 

The team already have a Qcloud simulator up and running on their site which allows you play around, using your browser, with all the basic components that make up a quantum computer: you can adjust the phase shifters, inject photons into different ports and click on the output ports to view the statistics. The characteristics of the simulator are said to be very close to that of the real quantum processor. To gain access to the real processor when it comes online on the 20th September it will be necessary to register at the site.