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    Asteroidea photonic testbed (ORCA Computing)

    A photonic quantum computing testbed built for the National Quantum Computing Centre under its 2024 testbed programme.

    Project data last updated 11 October 2026

    About this project

    ORCA Computing, a London company, built a photonic testbed called Asteroidea for the NQCC under the 2024 testbed programme.

    The NQCC reports that ORCA delivered and installed the system at the centre.

    Who leads it

    • Josh Nunn

      Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, ORCA Computing

      ORCA Computing

    Lead organisation

    ORCA Computing

    Company · London

    London maker of room-temperature photonic quantum computers, with a testbed at the NQCC and a 2026 enterprise deployment in Japan with Toyota Tsusho.

    Partners (1)

    • NQCC

      Research organisation · Harwell

    Funders

    In the news

    Quantum Zeitgeist articles naming the lead organisation or partners. They may not be about this project.

    • A recap of the Quantum Software Lab's Quantum Fringe in Edinburgh

      · UK

      A recap of the Quantum Software Lab’s Quantum Fringe in Edinburgh, read on Quantum Zeitgeist

      The Quantum Software Lab (QSL) at the University of Edinburgh has become a globally recognized hub for creating software solutions, and with its strategic partnership with the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC), now has more than 70 researchers. In three years, the QSL is poised to lead a

      Image © Quantum Zeitgeist

    • Anyon Computing quantum supercomputer

      Anyon Computing links quantum processors to GPUs with NVIDIA tech, read on Quantum Zeitgeist

      Anyon Computing unveiled a new open quantum control system built on NVIDIA NVQLink, designed so its microwave quantum control cluster and quantum processors join GPU and CPU compute nodes as co-processor nodes of a single supercomputing machine. The system will be open-sourced and serve as the contr

      Image © Quantum Zeitgeist

    • A complex optical setup is displayed on a dark table in a laboratory setting, dominated by green laser beams.

      How Do Photonic Quantum Computers Work?, read on Quantum Zeitgeist

      Photonic quantum computers encode a qubit in a single particle of light, steer it through a programmable maze of glass and count it with superconducting detectors, and the chips come off ordinary 300 millimetre semiconductor lines. As of mid-2026 no photonic platform has demonstrated a peer-reviewed

      Image © Quantum Zeitgeist

    All news for this project and its partners

    Sources

    1. NQCC: Science Minister announces the results of the £30m quantum computing testbed competition (nqcc.ac.uk)
    2. NQCC: Quantum computing testbeds (nqcc.ac.uk)
    3. Quantum Zeitgeist: NQCC receives first photonic quantum system from ORCA Computing (quantumzeitgeist.com)