Amazon Web Services introduces Ocelot- a new computing chip that can reduce costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%

Last week, Microsoft introduced Majorana 1, the world’s first computing chip that was expected to be scaled up to create quantum computers capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years rather than decades. Now, after Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has officially announced a new quantum computing chip.

The new chip announced by AWS is called Ocelot which is said to reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90% compared to current approaches. This chip is said to represent a breakthrough in the pursuit of building fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving problems of commercial and scientific importance. It is said that to address the current problems associated with quantum error, this new chip was developed by AWS.

Ocelot is a prototype quantum chip that is designed to test the effectiveness of AWS’s quantum error correction architecture. A novel design is used for Ocelot’s architecture and also cat qubit that is said to suppress certain forms of errors. AWS researchers for the first time have used combined cat qubit technology and additional quantum error correction components onto a microchip. It consists of two integrated silicon microchips it is composed of 14 core components

Oskar Painter, AWS director of Quantum Hardware, said, “With the recent advancements in quantum research, it is no longer a matter of if, but when practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers will be available for real-world applications. Ocelot is an important step on that journey. In the future, quantum chips built according to the Ocelot architecture could cost as little as one-fifth of current approaches, due to the drastically reduced number of resources required for error correction. Concretely, we believe this will accelerate our timeline to a practical quantum computer by up to five years.”

Like Microsoft researchers, AWS researchers have also published their findings in a peer-reviewed research paper in Nature. AWS has not taken an existing architecture but has selected its qubit and architecture with quantum error correction as its top requirement.

It is also claimed that, through approaches such as Ocelot, quantum computers can be built smaller, more reliably, and at lower cost by reducing the amount of resources needed.

It seems like the companies have now started taking a keen interest in quantum computing, as back in November 2024, IBM introduced its Heron R2 quantum chip while in December 2024, Google officially unveiled a new quantum chip called Willow. This year, Microsoft unveiled the Majorana 1 quantum chip, and yesterday Amazon also unveiled Ocelot which is a prototype quantum chip.