Nu Quantum and CERN breed success with White Rabbit technology

A leading quantum entanglement startup, Nu Quantum is adopting the WR technology to enable data-centre scale quantum computing networks.

WR enables highly precise timing synchronisation – crucial for developing large-scale quantum networks. Nu Quantum is the first quantum industrial partner to join the WR Collaboration.

The technology also provides an Ethernet network for control, distribution and data acquisition. This level of synchronisation is important to create the entanglement between computers which establishes the quantum network.

The Nu Quantum team has produced a sought-after Quantum Networking Unit (QNU) designed to enable multiple quantum computing nodes to be woven together into a distributed quantum computing machine.

This approach is essential to scale-out quantum computing and unlock transformative computational power to tackle outstanding challenges in industry and society.

Today’s control systems typically employ a mix of proprietary protocols and hard-wired connections that are challenging to scale and struggle to synchronise events to a common clock.

Nu Quantum is making great progress with the latest integration initiatives. It has successfully instantiated the control-plane hardware and benchmarked the optical sub-systems with delivery of the full system on target for March 2025. The first instantiation of the QNU’s Optics Module has been built and calibrated and its performance exceeds expectation, the company reveals.

Ed Wood, VP of Product at Nu Quantum, said: “A first-of-its-kind product, the QNU brings the industry closer to quantum networking solutions that can be deployed in the data centre.

“The high-value systems we are creating need very precise and synchronised orchestration: WR is the perfect tool to deliver this, and we are delighted to be collaborating with CERN to make it happen.”

Javier Serrano, Chair of the White Rabbit Collaboration Board and co-inventor of the White Rabbit technology at CERN, added: “It’s great to welcome Nu Quantum to the White Rabbit Collaboration, an initiative created to support the uptake by industry of the WR technology and foster its impact in society. We look forward to continuing to work with Nu Quantum on the quantum networks of the future.”

For the past 20 years, CERN has played a leading role in the design, deployment, and operations of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), at the base of the revolution that has led to modern distributed computing infrastructures and Cloud computing.

With the advent of quantum technologies, CERN seeks to contribute to future quantum networking technologies, setting the ground to meet CERN’s future needs while at the same time contributing innovations to society.

Founded in 2018, Nu Quantum is a spin-out of the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. In November 2023, the company raised an £8.5 million pre-series A round from main investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Expeditions Fund, and IQ Capital. The company also announced the first Qubit-Photon Interface (QPI), the equivalent of a network interface card, in October 2024.

• PHOTOGRAPH: Nu Quantum staff (left to right): Phil Dolan (Principal Optics Engineer), Ed Wood (VP Product), Shareef Jalloq (Principal Control Engineer), Simone Eizagirre Barker (Product Manager), and Jonah Foley (FPGA Engineer). Courtesy – Nu Quantum.