Riverlane can now begin building DeltaFlow, an operating system for quantum computers that will eventually spread worldwide. After a recent Series A funding of $20 million, the British company can now commence its operations. It has managed to get 20% of quantum hardware manufacturers to use Deltaflow since 2020. The funding will help Riverlane expand internationally.
This funding round was led by Draper Esprit, a European technology capital fund. Existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and the University of Cambridge were also involved. The latter is where Riverlane spun out of.
DeltaFlow is Riverlane’s plan to create a quantum ecosystem that thrives and where developers can access all types of quantum computers. This is done by a shared language, the Deltaflow language. With a shared language, there is room for partnerships and collaborations between teams all around the world like never before. This is Riverlane’s first venture into a quantum operating system. Other than the DeltaFlow language, there are two more segments, DeltaSimulator and DeltaModels. The former is a quantum simulator while the latter allows developers to use ARTIQ to emulate DeltaFlow programmes.
‘For a quantum ecosystem to thrive, we urgently need an operating system. An operating system makes quantum computers useful – it allows programs and applications to run on many different machines. Riverlane aims to make our operating system Deltaflow a global standard. I’m delighted to partner with Draper Esprit as we build the operating system for quantum computers and develop new collaborations with amazing quantum hardware companies.’
Steve Brierley, Founder and CEO of Riverlane
Riverlane intends to tackle the problem of having a quantum OS in the spirit of deep codesign.
‘The quantum stack is being built upside down. We have qubits and—since we know how to design great languages—many high-level development kits. All of those are based on the circuit model, a CPU directly controlling the QPU…The model disregards what actually goes on in the heterogeneous control stack. It presents quantum computers as black boxes in which only the bottom and the top layers are of relevance. All the middle layers are hidden away.’
Riverlane
Being able to use all available resources without causing decoherence is the goal. This means that all layers of the software stack must be integrated and manageable as much as possible. The middle of the stack consists of FPGAs and other devices.
At Riverlane, there are a number of FPGA experts, such as the VP of Engineering, Marco Ghibaudi. He worked on custom FPGAS used in detection and analysis on the CERN ATLAS projects. Other experts join him, but all of them say that many of the FPGA’s functions will eventually be replaced by custom hardware. Currently, the problem is that an ASIC cannot be designed until a firm software base exists. DeltaFlow and its three segments are the answer.
Riverlane has to fight a tough battle, as persuading all manufacturers to accept DeltaFlow is not an easy task. The company has to keep up with the times as well, such as repidly-changing qubits and custom hardware and software to account for. If all quantum hardware makers are in, the company just might have a chance.
About Riverlane
Riverlane is a company that spun out of the University of Cambridge. It wants to build quantum software that helps quantum computers perform at their fullest potential. The company has received funding multiple times and is widely acclaimed to be at the forefront of quantum software development. Currently, Riverlane is based in Cambridge, UK.
