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Quantis, a new Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG), is launched

Geneva, March 18, 2004

Although random numbers are required in many applications, their generation is often overlooked. Being deterministic, computers are not capable of producing random numbers. A physical source of randomness is necessary. Quantum physics being intrinsically random, it is natural to exploit a quantum process for such a source. Quantis is a physical random number generator exploiting an elementary quantum optics process. Photons - light particles - are sent one by one onto a semi-transparent mirror and detected. The exclusive events (reflection - transmission) are associated to "0" - "1" bit values. As Nicolas Gisin, University of Geneva professor and member of the founding team of id Quantique, puts it: “Quantum physics is the only physical theory predicting that the outcome of certain phenomena is random. It is thus a natural choice to use it to generate true random numbers (TRNG).”

“We have been commercialising quantum random number generators (QRNG) since 2002. These products met a great commercial success and clearly corresponded to a need for high security cryptographic applications” commented Grégoire Ribordy, CEO of id Quantique. He added “This is why we decided to launch Quantis, a random number generator (RNG) even better suited to the needs of our customers”.

The main improvements of Quantis with respect to the older quantum random number generator (QRNG) are its high bit generation rate (4 Mbits/s) and its small size (the size of a match box). Quantis is available either as a component for mounting on a plastic circuit board or as a PCI card. The PCI card version comes with drivers for Windows, Linux and Solaris. Important effort has been put into the development of Quantis to make it a low cost device.

Simulatneously with the market introduction of Quantis, id Quantique launches, in cooperation with the University of Geneva, the www.randomnumbers.info website. This site allows downloading true random numbers produced using a Quantis generator on demand.

About id Quantique
id Quantique is a spin-off of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. It was created in October 2001 by four researchers of the Group of Applied Physics, Grégoire Ribordy, Olivier Guinnard, Nicolas Gisin and Hugo Zbinden.
id Quantique has the commitment to become a leader in novel secure communication systems based on quantum photonics. It has developed the first commercial quantum cryptography system and quantum random number generator (QRNG). The products of id Quantique target the market of high security cryptographic applications and have the potential to dramatically enhance the security of digital communications, by solving the key generation and exchange problems. In December 2003, id Quantique raised 1 million Euros from the Luxemburg based i2i venture capital fund. The company has been supported since its creation by CCSO, a Swiss coaching network, and the CTI-Startup initiative.
In November 2001, id Quantique was one of the recipients of the European Innovation Awards from the Wall Street Journal Europe. It was also selected to represent Switzerland at the 2002 and 2004 Cebit in Hannover, Germany.

For additional information, please contact :

id Quantique
Grégoire Ribordy, CEO, id Quantique
Ph: +41 22 301 83 72
Cell: +41 79 784 70 79
info@idquantique.com
www.idquantique.com

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