Diraq's qubits are made with standard semiconductor manufacturing processes, the same used for conventional processors, and the company says this lets the system scale without rebuilding the data center around it. The current system occupies about 170 square feet (16 square meters), and the company says future utility-scale deployments could be even smaller.
The installation follows Diraq's advance to Stage C of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, one of only six companies in the final stage, with potential funding of up to $300 million. The company also signed a $38 million letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS Act.
Alongside the installation, Diraq published a report on future applications, including drug discovery. Eight qubits are still far from useful computation, and the goal of up to 256 qubits is a plan for the coming year.