A so-called “first product of the quantum processing algorithm” has emerged from Iran’s Imam Khomeini University of Marine Sciences and Technologies (RA), but a closer look reveals the device to be more of a “first of a kind” product of bogus reporting by the international press. I can imagine a number of you reading that first line apprehensively, but I promise, the tin hat is firmly on my head.
The device in question appears to be little more than a few inches each side, with a gorgeous radial circuitry pattern, though one that looked a little too rudimentary to feature any kind of quantum processing power on its own. As such, its announcement was made as part of a broader piece about Iran’s “recent progress” in the field of quantum computing.
From high to low, however, former US Department of State advisor on Iran Gabriel Noronha uncovered that the board seems to be the fairly affordable ZedBoard Zynq-7000 development SoC (similar to the Avnet Zynq UltraScale+ Mini SoC), available for $589 on Amazon. As it happens, the Zynq SoC is a single-board computer that comes with a host of features, including (among others) 256GB of storage, 512MB of DDR3 RAM, and only a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor (the same generation as the Apple A8 mobile chip).
“So, I guess they need a real processor to fake this,” you’re perhaps thinking to yourself. Alas, I’m afraid the bar has now dropped all the way to the floor. The device was announced in the presence of Iran’s Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, Coordinating Deputy of the Islamic Republic’s Army (and former Commander of the Navy). According to Tasnim, the device is a component of “deception-dealing” algorithms for “positioning systems of surface vessels.”
As such, one might assume that, if the device were real, it would produce some sort of quantum-based processing, with which it could detect surface vessels. Not so, as the claims of quantum processing were not made by the device’s manufacturer, but by a government figure, who was seemingly more interested in the device as an especially effective weapon.
That doesn’t stop the device from, as Tasnim puts it, dealing with “deception.” Rather than quantum meddling to outsmart enemy ships, an anonymous writer on the Tasnim news agency page explains (Google Translate) that the device can be used for “dealing with deception in positioning systems of surface vessels using algorithms.”
In addition to its military potential, the page lists a host of possibilities for the device, such as video processing, motor control, software acceleration, Linux/Android/RTOS development, embedded ARM processing, and general Zynq-7000 AP SoC prototyping.
It remains unclear why the device was featured to a greater extent as a quantum device, but it was touted in a press release about the advancement of Iranian quantum computing in general. From there, it was taken up by the international press, with a number of outlets (including IBS Intelligence) covering it as a quantum processor announcement.
Not long after the announcement, however, suspicions were raised, with some Twitter commentators noting the device’s small size (given its processor) and questioning the photograph’s origin. Soon afterwards, Noronha published a blog post that thoroughly debunked the claims made by the Imam Khomeini University of Marine Sciences and Technologies. Noronha first contacted the organization listed as the creator of the device, which informed him that they had authored no such device.
It was not long before the claims made by the university were found to be false. “When I looked at the news release and photos I knew that couldn’t be it,” Noronha told IBS Intelligence. By matching some of the unique identifying features of the board within the images, Noronha was able to conclude that the picture came from the product page for a ZedBoard (indeed, the exact model as mentioned above).
The university has since updated its news release to correct a discrepancy in nominal quantum gate counts, but the headline and other claims remain.
Original hardware specifications and photographs cited on the Imam Khomeini University of Marine Sciences and Technologies website, along with various other sources, are available below:
ZedBoard Zynq-7000 development SoC
Original specifications published alongside