IBM’s latest quantum chip breaks the elusive 100-qubit barrier
In the race to build the most powerful quantum computer, IBM recently unveiled a 127-qubit quantum computing chip called Eagle. With this, the tech giant claims it has created the world’s largest superconducting quantum computer, surpassing the machine built by Google. It follows IBM’s 65-qubit Hummingbird processor unveiled in 2020.
In 2019, Google announced that its Sycamore processor had achieved quantum supremacy. That processor used 54 qubits but has since been surpassed by a 56 and then 60-qubit demonstration with the Zuchongzhi superconducting processor from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).
IBM’s 127-qubit Eagle processor now takes the top spot as the largest, and therefore the most powerful, superconducting quantum computer.
Many experts say that breaking the 100-qubit barrier is noteworthy, as most quantum computers have hovered in the 50 to 70 qubit range in the past few years.
Quantum Advantage
The fundamental computational unit of quantum computing is the quantum circuit, and the more qubits a quantum processor possesses, the more complex and valuable the quantum circuits that it can run.
Unlike classical computers, which linearly rise in power as they grow, one additional qubit effectively doubles a quantum processor’s potential power.
IBM has a detailed roadmap for quantum computing, including a path for scaling quantum hardware to enable complex quantum circuits to reach Quantum Advantage, the point at which quantum systems can meaningfully outperform their classical counterpoints. Eagle is the latest step along this scaling path.
By exploiting the laws of quantum physics to process binary information, quantum-computing circuits such as the Eagle chip can already do calculations that can’t easily be simulated on classical supercomputers.
The increased qubit count will allow users to explore problems at a new level of complexity when undertaking experiments and running applications, such as optimising machine learning or modelling new molecules and materials for use in areas spanning from the energy and finance industries to the drug discovery process.
Quantum computers are adept at mathematical functions such as factoring integers, a use case first proposed by mathematician Peter Shor in the 1990s. Certain cryptography systems that encrypted data over the internet relied on the difficulty of this problem.
Quantum computers could also conduct faster searches through an unsorted database compared to classical computers.
“The arrival of the Eagle processor is a major step towards the day when quantum computers can outperform classical computers for useful applications,” said Dr. Darío Gil, Senior Vice President, IBM and Director of Research. “Quantum computing has the power to transform nearly every sector and help us tackle the biggest problems of our time. This is why IBM continues to rapidly innovate quantum hardware and software design, building ways for quantum and classical workloads to empower each other, and create a global ecosystem that is imperative to the growth of a quantum industry.”
Companies, including Honeywell, and a slew of well-funded startups, have similarly ambitious plans. They want to make quantum computers capable of performing certain tasks that are out of reach of even the largest supercomputers that use classical technology.
In recent years, much progress has been made in building quantum computing, and there’s now increased focus on superconducting qubits, which is one of the main technologies that Google, USTC and IBM are backing.
While both Google and USTC used a common test to assess such chips, which was to simulate a quantum circuit and sample random numbers from its output. IBM claims to have created a more programmable and adaptable processor.
IBM has said that it hopes to demonstrate a 400-qubit processor next year and to break the 1000-qubit barrier the following year with a chip called Condor. That will be the most convincing demonstration, but we wait for the day where a quantum computer will solve more real-world problems and much better than a classical computer.
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