Quantum/Machines/Aegiq ARTEMIS at NQCC
United Kingdom · operational · Photonic
Aegiq ARTEMIS at NQCC
Aegiq ARTEMIS at NQCC is a photonic quantum computer operated by National Quantum Computing Centre in United Kingdom. Its physical qubit count has not been published. 9 sourced specs are in the spec sheet. No benchmark figures are recorded for it yet.
Also known as ARTEMIS, Advanced Research TEstbed Manipulating PhotonIc States
Photonic testbed commissioned at Harwell. Aegiq's CEO told EE Times in August 2025 that it had been on site since the end of May and ran between 4 and 6 qubits flying through the system, so no fixed qubit count is recorded.
Spec sheet
Technical details as the builder or a paper states them, each with its own source. A blank is a fact we could not source, not a zero. Fidelity and coherence figures are in the benchmark table below.
| Spec | Value | Basis | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | ARTEMIS with a custom silicon nitride QPU from QuiX Quantum | Vendor reported | Both pages reproduce Aegiq's Sept 2025 release; EE Times quotes the CEO saying the QPU holds a reconfigurable silicon nitride chip with 380 tunable parameters. | thequantuminsider.comharwellcampus.com |
| Qubit type | Single-photon qubits from compound-semiconductor sources | Vendor reported | EE Times quotes the CEO on on-demand compound-semiconductor sources; the Aug 2025 interview says 4 to 6 qubits are in flight, and a second generation moves to telecom-band sources. | eetimes.comthequantuminsider.com |
| Topology | Fibre-interconnected modules around a reconfigurable silicon nitride QPU | Vendor reported | Aegiq describes a fibre-interconnected photonic architecture; the QPU is programmable, no connectivity graph is published. | harwellcampus.comeetimes.com |
| Cooling and environment | 19-inch rack modules with no large cryogenic environment; superconducting single-photon detectors on board | Vendor reported | CEO quote in Aug 2025; the interview does not give the detector operating temperature. | eetimes.com |
| Fabrication | Silicon nitride photonics by LioniX International; QPU by QuiX Quantum; source scale-up with IQE | Vendor reported | LioniX and QuiX are named in the Sept 2025 commissioning release; IQE is named in the EE Times interview as the foundry partner for scaling the sources. | thequantuminsider.comeetimes.com |
| Software | Aegiq Light Works SDK (Python) | Vendor reported | Described as letting users define and run circuits remotely; written Lightworks in the release and Light Works in the interview. | eetimes.comthequantuminsider.com |
| Access and pricing | Company-owned on-premises system at NQCC, programmed remotely through the Light Works SDK | Vendor reported | Harwell Campus calls it the first company-owned on-premises system in a UK national facility of this type; no price is published. | harwellcampus.comeetimes.com |
| Successor | Aegiq second-generation platform with on-demand telecom-band sources, around 2027 to 2028 | Vendor reported | CEO said in Aug 2025 that Generation 2 is around 2027 or 2028; the Sept 2025 release says the second-generation platform is already being advanced. | eetimes.comthequantuminsider.com |
| Roadmap | Generation 3 around 2030: utility-scale system for a small facility | Vendor reported | Aegiq CEO said this in an interview published 15 Aug 2025. | eetimes.com |
Timeline
- 2024-02-05: Announced
- 2025-05: First operational
- 2026-10-07: Status checked: operational
More from National Quantum Computing Centre
- Oxford Ionics QUARTET (operational)
- Infleqtion Sqale at NQCC (operational, 100 qubits)
- ORCA PT-2 at NQCC (operational)
- Quantum Motion at NQCC (operational)
- Rigetti 24-Qubit Testbed at NQCC (operational, 24 qubits)
- QuEra Testbed at NQCC (under construction)
Comparable photonic machines
Closest in physical qubit count within the same technology. Counts of different qubit types are not interchangeable across technologies.
| Machine | Operator | Qubits | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucy | CEA | 12 | operational |
| Xanadu Aurora | Xanadu | 12 | operational |
| ORCA PT-2 at NQCC | National Quantum Computing Centre | - | operational |
| Jiuzhang 4.0 | USTC | - | operational |
| Quandela Belenos | Quandela | 12 | operational |
| Quandela Canopus | Quandela | - | planned |