The ‘Quantum Network Entanglement Chip,’ developed with UC Santa Barbara, produces pairs of entangled photons at telecom wavelengths, up to one million high-fidelity pairs per second per channel, creating tightly correlated quantum states that persist across long distances.
For the quantum-perplexed, Cisco's chip essentially acts like a translator and connector, using particles of light to link distant quantum computers so they can work together, much like servers operate in a data centre.
Unlike traditional quantum systems that require extreme cooling, the functions at room temperature and is designed to work with existing fibre-optic infrastructure, making it more practical for near-term deployment and enabling faster, more secure quantum-ready networks.
Vijoy Pandey, general manager and SVP of Outshift by Cisco, said: “Just as Cisco helped build infrastructure for the internet, we’re now creating quantum networking technology that will be the foundation for the quantum internet, making quantum computing practical years ahead of current timelines.
“Our approach could accelerate impactful quantum computing and networking applications from decades away to just five to 10 years.”
According to Cisco, the chip consumes less than one milliwatt of power and is built as a Photonic Integrated Chip (PIC), a miniaturised, energy-efficient device that integrates seamlessly with existing network hardware.
By enabling quantum processors to communicate over existing telco infrastructure, the chip could help overcome one of the biggest challenges in quantum computing today: scaling.
Most current quantum systems are limited to a few hundred qubits, yet real-world applications, such as quantum-enhanced network automation, could require millions.
Instead of pursuing a single, ultra-powerful quantum computer, Cisco is backing a distributed model, where many smaller processors are networked together, a strategy similar to how cloud computing reshaped traditional IT.
The Network Entanglement Chip could provide the building blocks for a “quantum data centre” in which multiple quantum systems share information in real time.
Cisco also highlighted the chip’s vendor-agnostic design, meaning it can support a range of quantum technologies, whether superconducting, ion trap, or neutral atom-based.
While still a research , the chip is now the centrepiece of work at the newly launched Cisco Quantum Labs in Santa Monica, where teams are developing related technologies, such as quantum compilers, quantum random number generators, and secure entanglement distribution protocols.
“Companies building quantum processors will benefit from Cisco’s quantum networking technologies to scale their systems,” Pandey wrote in a blog post. “By building this infrastructure now, Cisco is helping to accelerate the entire quantum ecosystem.”
While quantum technologies are on the horizon, tech firms are hard at work developing hardware capable of powering those next-gen applications.
Microsoft, for example, unveiled its Majorana 1 chip earlier this year, which features a topoconductor, a new type of material capable of controlling Majorana particles to produce more reliable and scalable qubits, the building blocks for quantum computers.
Google, meanwhile, unveiled its own quantum computing chip last December, dubbed Willow, which can perform a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes, a task that would take some of the world’s top supercomputers 10 septillion years to complete.
It’s not just the big names, with startups like KETS Quantum Security and Ephos developing quantum hardware.
KETS is working on miniaturised quantum key distribution (QKD) devices to protect networks from interception attempts, while Ephos is designing photonics-based chips to power both conventional and quantum devices.
