研究人员说,该平台是目的address the “achilles heel” of the qubits that enable quantum computing – their instability. Since quantum states are easily disturbed by the environment, researchers must go to extraordinary lengths to protect them, cooling them nearly down to absolute zero temperature and isolating them from outside disruptions, like electrical noise.

“因此，” Microsoft Station Q Condensed Matter理论总监Chetan Nayak说，“有必要开发由许多组件组成的完整系统，该系统保持了一个维护一个受监管的，稳定的环境。但是，所有这些都必须在与Qubits进行交流时完成。到目前为止，这已经需要一只鸟类的电缆缠结，这可能适用于有限数量的Qubits（也许甚至是“中等规模”），但对于大型量子计算机而言也不适用。

研究人员说，与其使用室温电子设备来产生电压脉冲来控制特殊的用途冰箱，其基本温度比星际空间冷的20倍，他们发明了对照芯片 - 配音的鹅莓（Next），它是下一步到量子设备，并在冰箱底部普遍存在的极端条件下运行。他们还开发了一种首先使用的通用冷冻计算芯，该芯的温度略高，可与星际空间相当，这可以通过浸入液态氦气中来实现。

This core, say the researchers, performs the classical computations needed to determine the instructions that are sent to Gooseberry which, in turn, feeds voltage pulses to the qubits. These novel classical computing technologies solve the I/O nightmares associated with controlling thousands of qubits.

Gooseberry resolves several issues with I/O in quantum computers by operating at 100 milliKelvin (mK) while dissipating sufficiently low power so that it does not exceed the cooling power of a standard commercially-available research refrigerator at these temperatures, sidestepping the otherwise insurmountable challenge of running thousands of wires into a fridge. Meanwhile, the cryo-compute core, one step up the quantum stack, operates at around 2 Kelvin (K) – a temperature that can be reached by immersing it in liquid helium.

研究人员说，尽管这仍然很冷，但它比醋栗运行的温度高20倍，因此，可用的冷却能力是400倍。由于散发出400倍热量的奢侈，核心能够进行通用计算。研究人员说，这两种硬件都是大规模量子计算机流程的关键进展，并且是多年工作的结果。

Nayak说：“这两个芯片都有助于管理大型量子计算机的不同部分以及计算机与其用户之间的通信。”“They are the key elements of a complex ‘nervous system’ of sorts to send and receive information to and from every qubit, but in a way that maintains a stable cold environment, which is a significant challenge for a large-scale commercial system with tens of thousands of qubits or more. The Microsoft team has navigated many hurdles to accomplish this feat.”

研究人员说，虽然醋栗和冷冻计算核心都代表着量子计算的大步，但研究人员仍需要更多的飞跃，然后才能实现有意义的量子计算机。有关更多信息，请参阅“低温CMOS芯片，用于生成多个Qubit的控制信号.”

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