433 Qubit Processor
In the future, quantum computers are expected to increase computing speeds to a million times faster than today's fastest supercomputers!
433 qubit processor, big enough!
IBM said Wednesday that it introduced its most powerful quantum computer processor to date, called Osprey, a 433-qubit machine that has three times as many qubits as the Eagle machine announced last year.
While different quantum computer companies say different things about the power of their qubits, the number of qubits, or qubits, is an indication of the power of a quantum computer that uses quantum mechanics, and qubits can be created in many different ways.
The IBM Osprey has the largest number of qubits in IBM quantum processors, three times as many as the Eagle machine announced last year.
The processor can run complex quantum calculations, with far more computing power than any classical computer. If classical bits were used to represent a state of an IBM Osprey processor, there would be far more atoms in the known universe!
Currently, IBM has more than 20 quantum computers around the world that customers can access through a cloud platform.
"With the new 433 qubit Osprey processor, we are one step closer to using quantum computers to solve previously unsolvable problems," said Dario Gil, senior vice president and director of research at IBM.
"We are continually expanding and advancing our quantum technology, including hardware, software and classical integration, together with our partners and customers around the world, to meet the greatest challenges of our time. This work will be the foundation for the coming era of quantum-centric supercomputing."
The supporting quantum system will be online next year, which will be more modular
In addition to the processor, IBM also introduced a next-generation quantum companion system.
IBM is still working on a computer with more than 1,000 qubits, Gil said. To scale up even more, the IBM team is trying a new approach.
"The size of the Osprey chip is already huge. Next year, the chip with 1,000 qubits will be even bigger," Gil said. "So after that, we have been designing and building a new system based on modularized quantum computing as a whole."
IBM calls this modular System Quantum System 2.
"Quantum System 2 is the first truly modular quantum computing system that will continue to scale up over time," Gil said. "Modularity means the chips themselves are connected to each other."
By connecting three of these systems, IBM says it can build a system with as many as 16,632 qubits.
IBM says Quantum System 2 is modular and flexible enough to combine multiple processors into a system with a communication link.
IBM said it aims to bring the System online by the end of 2023, connecting multiple Quantum System 2's to become a cluster of "quantum-centric supercomputing."
In other news, IBM showed off its new IBM Quantum Safe technology, customer and ecosystem extensions and other ecological content.
"The IBM Quantum Summit 2022 marks a pivotal moment in the development of quantum computing globally," said Jay Gambetta, IBM researcher and Vice President of Quantum. "As we continue to scale quantum systems and make them simpler to use, we will see the use of quantum technology and the growth of the quantum computing industry."
IBM is making steady progress in its quest for quantum computing
So what does the announcement of IBM's most powerful quantum computer mean for us? That starts with what quantum computers can do.
In theory, quantum arithmetic can be performed in a much faster way. A quantum computer may be able to solve problems that would take a conventional computer years to solve in a matter of days.
Qubits, on the other hand, are an important parameter that describes the computing power of a quantum computer -- the larger the number of qubits, the more components there are in the computer and the more calculations it can perform exponentially.
So far, quantum computers have proven themselves to have significant advantages over traditional computers for certain tasks.
Some experts even predict that if quantum error correction and qubit numbers continue at the pace of the past two years, quantum computers could be millions of times faster than today's fastest supercomputers.
So, the Osprey release not only paves the way for a 1,121-qubit computer, Condor, to be launched in 2023, but also proves that IBM is well on its way to achieving quantum-centric supercomputing through new hardware, software, and system breakthroughs.
