Researchers from the University of New South Wales will next week unveil what they say is a major advance in the road to building super-fast quantum computers.

The advance, of which a patent has been sought to protect it, is considered by the UNSW researchers as a substantial step forward in the global race to make the first generation of quantum computers, and "likely clears the final hurdle in making them a reality", the UNSW researchers said.

An atomic-scale transistor made by UNSW researchers unveiled in 2012. Credit:UNSW

"What we have is a game changer," Andrew Dzurak, scientia professor and director of the Australian National Fabrication Facility at UNSW, said.

Dzurak, along with Professor Mark Hoffman, dean of the Faculty of Engineering at UNSW, Dr Menno Veldhorst, a UNSW research fellow, and Rosie Hicks, chief executive officer of UNSW's Australian National Fabrication Facility, will present their findings at a news conference to be held in Sydney on Tuesday to coincide with publication of their work in the global scientific journal, Nature.