Intel Announces "Horse Ridge" 22nm FinFET Cryogenic Control Chip For Quantum Research

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Announces "Horse Ridge" 22nm FinFET Cryogenic Control Chip For Quantum Research

Intel Labs announced "Horse Ridge" as a cryogenic control chip to enable more development and testing around full-stack quantum computing systems...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Horse-Ridge

[timofonic]

Are they getting out of ideas in the transistor technology and going after quantum computing?

[schmidtbag]

Are they getting out of ideas in the transistor technology and going after quantum computing?

Since when is developing quantum computers a bad thing? Intel has the money for it, and there's only so much left that can be done to improve binary computers. Quantum computers can calculate things that nothing else can (at least in a reasonable amount of time) so I think it's perfectly reasonable for Intel to pursue this now, especially since they've got a lot of competition at this point. I'm sure Intel finds it refreshing that AMD isn't following them to this.

[S.Pam]

But the name....

[milkylainen]

Are they getting out of ideas in the transistor technology and going after quantum computing?

I think this is the result of the general power struggle inside Intel.
Some want to focus on core business and have total hegemony over the classical CPU market.

Then there are those who think Intel should explore more of the non-classic markets.
AI-acceleration, FPGAs, Quantum Computing, Autonomous driving hardware etc.

[ThoreauHD]

I'm hoping for 32nm by 2022. Come on Intel! I believe in you!

[starshipeleven]

Are they getting out of ideas in the transistor technology and going after quantum computing?

This is not a quantum computing device. It's comparable to a board power distribution and fan controller chip in a normal x86 system, auxiliary hardware.