understanding computers today & tomorrow comprehensive

Software that runs on quantum machines will be vitally important too. Gambetta says the industry also needs more “quantum computational scientists,” people skilled in bridging the divide between the physicists creating the machine and the developers looking to design and implement useful algorithms. To create powerful quantum computers, engineers will have to go bigger. Most experts say that’s not big enough to yield much in the way of useful computation. But according to IBM’s own road map, quantum computers of the sort it’s building can only scale up to 5,000 qubits with current technology. In theory, these qubits can be operated in a large ensemble. IBM’s qubits are currently made from rings of superconducting metal, which follow the same rules as atoms when operated at millikelvin temperatures, just a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero. The companies involved usually offer additional measures of performance, such as “quantum volume” and the number of “algorithmic qubits.” In the next decade advances in error correction, qubit performance, and software-led error “mitigation,” as well as the major distinctions between different types of qubits, will make this race especially tricky to follow. Palo Alto–based PsiQuantum, like Google, is also aiming to build a million-qubit quantum computer, but it has not revealed its time scale or its error-correction requirements.īecause of those requirements, citing the number of physical qubits is something of a red herring-the particulars of how they are built, which affect factors such as their resilience to noise and their ease of operation, are crucially important. Maryland-based IonQ is aiming to have 1,024 “logical qubits,” each of which will be formed from an error-correcting circuit of 13 physical qubits, performing computations by 2028.

Google has said it is targeting a million qubits by the end of the decade, though error correction means only 10,000 will be available for computations.

Understanding computers today & tomorrow comprehensive