Microsoft and Photonic partner on quantum resource estimation

Microsoft and quantum technology company Photonic announced on September 23, 2026, that they are expanding their collaboration to advance quantum resource estimation for future large-scale quantum computing systems. The effort focuses on helping developers evaluate qubit counts, execution times, and overhead for distributed quantum architectures.

The project combines Photonic's SHYPS family of Quantum Low-Density Parity Check (QLDPC) error-correction codes with Microsoft's Quantum Resource Estimation framework. The open-source Microsoft tool enables researchers to assess how hardware configurations and error-correction schemes influence the physical resources required to run practical algorithms across interconnected quantum processors.

Matthias Troyer, Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft Quantum, stated that quantum resource estimation helps developers understand the real-world requirements of applications before fault-tolerant hardware arrives, exploring how distributed architectures impact performance and scalability.