Microsoft opens Maryland quantum center, gives DARPA direct hardware access

The center sits within the University of Maryland's Discovery District near Washington, D.C., and is built around Microsoft 's Majorana 2 chip.

Rather than the remote access DARPA previously relied on to reach Microsoft hardware in Redmond, Washington, and in Europe, the agency will now have its own on-site workspace at the facility where its personnel can physically install hardware and execute their own startup procedures, according to Reuters.

Microsoft unveiled the Majorana 2 chip earlier this year, describing it as 1,000 times more reliable than its predecessor.

Qubit lifetimes on the chip reach a mean of 20 seconds, compared with under 12 milliseconds on the previous version.

Microsoft 's quantum program has faced scrutiny from some physicists who say the company has not released enough data to verify its claims, and DARPA scientists have been embedded in the company's quantum work on a weekly basis with full access to its data.