IBM Is Here With The World’s First 1,000-qubit Quantum Processor!

It’s no surprise that businesses are investing big in quantum computing technology.

This is because quantum computers offer computation capabilities that are well beyond that of classical computers, as quantum entanglement and quantum superposition allow qubits to exist in multiple states at one time, opposed on 1 or 0 at one time.

To put it simply, it’s the next iteration of computing, which is why companies are pouring in resources to stay ahead of competitors (read more). On the other hand, some are achieving success through mutually beneficial tie-ups (read more), while some are ramping down research in the field (read more).

However, our latest news comes from industry leader, IBM, who made a few announcements recently.

So, what’s IBM up to? Let’s explore!
 

What Did IBM Announce?

 

• “We’ve entered a new era of quantum computing.”

• That’s how IBM began its latest blog post that announced the introduction of Condor, a 1,121 superconducting qubit quantum processor.

• The processor is arranged in a honeycomb pattern and is based on the company’s cross-resonance gate technology. IBM believes the new processor serves as an innovation milestone, solving challenges with scale and informing future hardware design.

• An excerpt from the blog post read, “Condor pushes the limits of scale and yield in chip design with a 50% increase in qubit density, advances in qubit fabrication and laminate size, and includes over a mile of high-density cryogenic flex IO wiring within a single dilution [refrigerator].”

• This marks one of the two quantum systems IBM had planned to release in 2023.

• The second, Heron, is built on four years of research and is based on the quantum system at IBM Torino.

• It features 133 fixed-frequency qubits with tunable couplers and yields a 3-5x improvement in device performance as compared to the flagship 127-qubit Eagle processors, virtually eliminating crosstalk.

• “With Heron, we have developed a qubit and the gate technology that we’re confident will form the foundation of our hardware roadmap going forward,” the blog post read.

• IBM’s Heron chips will also be used in its Quantum System Two, which takes us to the next announcement.

 

What Else Did IBM Announce?

In the same blog post, IBM announced the IBM Quantum System Two, which is the bedrock for scalable quantum computation, is now operational at its lab in Yorktown Heights in New York.
 

• Quantum System Two is 22 feet wide and 12 feet high. It currently features three IBM Quantum Heron processors.

• The company also said it will now focus on making its machines more error-resistant rather than larger.

• IBM also made announcements about Qiskit 1.0 (the first stable release of Qiskit), which is the most popular quantum computing SDK and comes with improvements in circuit construction, compilation times and memory consumption compared to earlier releases. It will be released in February 2024.

• Further, it introduced Qiskit Patterns, a programming template outlining the structure of quantum programs and a logical framework for building quantum algorithms and applications at scale.

• Next came an announcement saying IBM would be bringing the use of generative AI for quantum code programming through watsonx, the enterprise AI platform from IBM.

• Ultimately, IBM also revealed its extended roadmap to 2033 that aims to realize quantum-centric supercomputing. IBM outlined its industry-defining roadmap accounting for a decade’s worth of quantum innovation, which will begin with a target of Heron reaching 5,000 gates in 2024.

• Other announcements included AI transpilation alpha for Premium Users, IBM’s Quantum Accelerator 3.0 and IBM’s Quantum Safe roadmap, which will aim to advance research into quantum-safe cryptography, foster industry partnerships to drive adoption of post-quantum cryptographic solutions and develop new quantum-safe technologies.

Do you think IBM has emerged as the leader in the quantum computing industry with its latest announcements? Do you think other companies need to step up their efforts to keep up with IBM?

Let us know in the comments below!