Ibm announces a new and improved 53 qubit quantum computer

IBM announced a new quantum computer along with a new quantum computing center in New York. The new quantum computer comes with more than twice the qubits (53 total) than its previous quantum computer (20 qubits) and supposedly exponentially higher performance, as the performance of quantum computers grows exponentially with the number of qubits.

IBM creates the first quantum computer of up to 53 qubits

The new computer will be the largest of its kind commercially available so far, when it becomes available in mid-October. Beyond the higher number of qubits, it also comes with other enhancements, such as a new quantum processor design with more compact custom electronics that reduces interference and error rates.

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IBM has previously stated that it is not a fan of chasing higher qubit counts. That's why he came up with his "quantum volume" formula. It takes into account both the number of qubits and the error rate. A high qubit number doesn't mean much unless the error rate is also small enough. Alternatively, not much can be done with a quantum computer that has a handful of qubits and zero errors. Both the high number of qubits and the low error rate are required. In addition, both metrics need even greater improvements in the coming years before they can be considered useful for more practical applications.

“Our global drive has been extraordinary since we put the first quantum computer in the cloud in 2016, with the goal of moving quantum computing beyond the isolated laboratory experiments that only a few organizations could do, in the hands of dozens of thousands of users. ”

"The sole goal of this passionate community is to achieve what we call Quantum Advantage , producing powerful quantum systems that can ultimately solve real problems that our customers face and that are not feasible just with today's classic methods. day, and by making even more IBM Quantum systems available, we believe this goal is achievable. ”

IBM's “Quantum Advantage” is basically the same as Google's “Quantum Supremacy”. "Both seek to demonstrate that at least some applications can run faster on a quantum computer than on Earth's fastest supercomputer.

IBM claims that it has 80 business, institutional and academic associations, giving IBM some validation that its quantum computers are working, at a minimum, for research purposes.

Will we ever see a quantum computer for the mass audience on the desktop? It seems that we will still have to wait a few years, but progress is being made.

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