Quantum computing has a new leader: IBM and its 50-qubit quantum computer.
a new project that has given life to the most sophisticated quantum computer to date, thanks to its 50 qubits, or quantum bits, that open a world of possibilities towards a new and powerful way of processing information. In addition to this, IBM is also announcing a new quantum computer of 20 qubits, which will be the first to be available commercially within the cloud services offered by the company. With this, IBM seeks to take the lead in this segment that has begun to explode and where companies like Google and Intel are betting in an important way.
Working with quantum states also brings another problem: consistency, since these states tend to exist for a short period of time, a short interval before the qubits return to a classic computing state of ones and zeros. To give us an idea of this, the first quantum computers of the late 1990s had a coherence of only a few nanoseconds. Last year a new milestone was reached, reaching 47 and 50 microseconds for 5 qubit machines, which was the most important jump in the history of quantum computing. Today in the case of IBM we are facing a functional 50-bit prototype with 90 microseconds of coherence, while the commercial version of 20 qubits, which will be available before the end of 2017, will be able to move between 70 microseconds.
a new project that has given life to the most sophisticated quantum computer to date, thanks to its 50 qubits, or quantum bits, that open a world of possibilities towards a new and powerful way of processing information. In addition to this, IBM is also announcing a new quantum computer of 20 qubits, which will be the first to be available commercially within the cloud services offered by the company. With this, IBM seeks to take the lead in this segment that has begun to explode and where companies like Google and Intel are betting in an important way.
Working with quantum states also brings another problem: consistency, since these states tend to exist for a short period of time, a short interval before the qubits return to a classic computing state of ones and zeros. To give us an idea of this, the first quantum computers of the late 1990s had a coherence of only a few nanoseconds. Last year a new milestone was reached, reaching 47 and 50 microseconds for 5 qubit machines, which was the most important jump in the history of quantum computing. Today in the case of IBM we are facing a functional 50-bit prototype with 90 microseconds of coherence, while the commercial version of 20 qubits, which will be available before the end of 2017, will be able to move between 70 microseconds.
