Score one more for the Xanadu meme

Toronto startup Xanadu raises $32-million to help build ‘world’s most powerful computer’ /via @globeandmail https://t.co/wf1VMfDki6

— Sabine Hossenfelder (@skdh) June 30, 2019

From the article:

What sets Xanadu apart is its approach. Many quantum computers require shed-sized chambers where specialized chips are cooled to just above the coldest possible temperature, minus 273.15 Celsius, so subatomic particles in the chips experience the quantum mechanical effects that are needed to unleash their computing power.

Xanadu, which raised $9-million in a 2018 financing also led by OMERS, instead uses a process called “squeezing light,” by firing lasers that enable photons to generate quantum effects on a thumbnail-sized chip. The method, based on Australia-born founder and CEO Christian Weedbrook’s PhD thesis at University of Queensland, happens at room temperature. That means Xanadu – which achieved light-based quantum effects on a chip last September, a feat that no one else has accomplished – believes it can develop its quantum computer much quicker and cheaper than others.

Ah, from "caves of ice" – those "shed-sized chambers" – to the "sunny dome" – lasers!

Here's my paper on the Xanadu meme: One Candle, a Thousand Points of Light: The Xanadu Meme.