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IBM releases most powerful quantum computer yet

by on10 November 2022


Three times the number of potentially dead or alive cats on board 

IBM has launched its most powerful quantum computer to date.

Dubbed the Osprey, a 433-qubit machine that has three times the number of qubits than its Eagle machine which landed last year.

The number of qubits, or quantum bits, are an indication of the power of the quantum computer which uses quantum mechanics, although different quantum computer companies make different claims about the power of their qubits which can be created many different ways.

Quantum computers should speed up certain calculations millions of times faster than the latest super computers. Although it is unlikely that they will ever run Chrysalis

Dario Gil, IBM's director of research, said IBM is still on track to launch a computer with over 1000 qubits but for further scaling was working on a new approach.

"As we push the limits of the size of the Osprey chip that we're announcing, if you look at it, it's really big already. Next year, 1000 is going to be very big," he said. "So after that, we have been designing and engineering the whole architecture for quantum computing based on modularity."

IBM is calling the modular system Quantum System Two which it says will be the first truly modular quantum computing system so that you can continue to scale to larger and larger systems over time.

"Modularity means the chips themselves are going to have to be interconnected to one another," Gil said.

IBM said it is targeting for this system to be online by end of next year and it would be the building blocks for "quantum-centric supercomputing" by connecting multiple Quantum System Twos. IBM said it could build a system with up to 16,632 qubits by linking three of these systems.

 

Last modified on 10 November 2022
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