SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Cisco ( CSCO ) on

Thursday announced a new software tool aimed at weaving together

quantum computers from various makers into a single cloud,

making it easier to develop useful applications.

Major tech firms such as Microsoft ( MSFT ), IBM ( IBM )

and Google are investing in building out their own

quantum computers, which use properties of quantum physics to

solve difficult computing problems faster than classical

machines. Cisco ( CSCO ), a major provider of networking gear for those

classical machines, has taken a different track, aiming to

create a new category of networking chips to connect quantum

machines together.

In addition to quantum networking chips, Cisco ( CSCO ) is also

working on the software that will be needed to connect quantum

machines together. The tool announced on Thursday, which Cisco ( CSCO )

said it would make available for download next week, aims to

analyze a quantum computing problem and then split it up across

different machines - including machines that use fundamentally

different approaches to achieving quantum computing.

Large tech companies and startups are still in heated

competition around which kind of quantum computer will work

best, but Cisco ( CSCO ) is aiming to take problems that software

developers want to solve and break those problems up and assign

them to whichever kind of computer might be best for that piece

of the problem.

"You as the customer, as the quantum algorithm developer,

should not worry about the kinds of technology that exist,"

Vijoy Pandey, senior vice president of Cisco's ( CSCO ) Outshift

innovation incubator, told Reuters. "We will handle that

complexity."