NQCP spins out Pelagic Systems to sell millisecond-scale qubit calibration software
Pelagic Systems, a new spinout from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Quantum Computing Programme, moves qubit calibration onto FPGA controllers to run in milliseconds.
A new Danish company, Pelagic Systems, launched on October 27 as a spinout from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Quantum Computing Programme (NQCP) at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. It is building software to measure, understand and control quantum processors from a single platform, with a focus on calibration that keeps pace with hardware whose properties drift over time.
What was announced
In its launch announcement, Pelagic says its technology has already been developed and demonstrated on superconducting quantum processors at NQCP and the Niels Bohr Institute, including the ability to characterize and recalibrate key processor parameters on millisecond timescales. The company now plans to offer those tools to research groups and quantum computing companies working on advanced hardware.
Development was supported by Innovation Fund Denmark through its InnoExplorer and Grand Solutions programs. Peter Krogstrup, CEO of NQCP and Quantum Foundry Copenhagen, called the software "extremely efficient at calibrating, validating, and maintaining our QC hardware." Innovation Fund Denmark CEO Cecilie Brøkner and Niels Bohr Institute head Joachim Mathiesen also welcomed the spinout.
The technical details
Superconducting qubits do not stand still: their frequencies drift, lifetimes fluctuate and readout shifts. Pelagic's pitch is to move estimation and decision-making into the experimental loop by running the analysis directly on the FPGA controllers that drive the qubits, rather than sending data to a host computer and waiting for a response.
The company's website gives one example. Measuring a qubit's energy-relaxation time, T₁, with host-mediated feedback on a CPU took about 250 ms, while on-controller estimation on the FPGA took 9.8 ms. The two methods returned T₁ values of 22.2 ± 1.6 µs and 18.3 ± 4.7 µs respectively. Pelagic says that measuring T₁ this quickly reveals previously hidden fluctuations on millisecond timescales, and shows a seven-day trace from five qubits as evidence. The company describes its platform as built on four parts: a data architecture, an experiment framework, real-time control and advanced quantum characterization, verification and validation (QCVV).
Why it matters
Calibration is a growing bottleneck as processors scale. Every qubit and coupler needs regular retuning, and slow, host-driven routines take machine time away from users. Moving those loops onto the control hardware could make larger devices easier to keep in tune, and it also enables experiments that react to measurement results in real time.
What to watch
The launch announcement does not name commercial customers, private investors or the company's leadership team. Quantum Computing Report notes that a key test will be whether the approach generalizes across different commercial FPGA control platforms and other qubit modalities, such as neutral atoms and trapped ions, beyond the superconducting systems where it was developed.
Sources
Facts on this page come from the sources below, retrieved by DesignQuantum.
- Say hi to Pelagic (Pelagic Systems announcement) pelagic.systems
- Pelagic Systems: Quantum Control Software pelagic.systems
- NQCP Spins Out Pelagic Systems to Commercialize Real-Time Hardware Calibration Software (Quantum Computing Report) quantumcomputingreport.com