![]() ![]() Peculiarly, qubits can maintain this state only when no one is looking. Whereas classical bits, or “binary digits,” encompass just two states-often represented as “0” and “1”-qubits can assume any shade in between. Composed of atoms, photons, or other materials, they are the basis of quantum computing’s exponential potential. Qubits are “quantum bits,” a turbocharged version of classical computing’s bits. Not the biblical unit of measure, though it’s pronounced the same. Like many futuristic fields, quantum computing comes with its own complex vocabulary. The following are some key terms to know. “If you’re not preparing for that and doing these experiments now, you’re not going to be able to catch up.” Still, despite the current shortcomings, getting real value from quantum is inevitable, says Chris Savoie, Zapata’s chief executive, and that’s coming sooner rather than later. In the meantime, quantum computers have a tendency to err, and accounting for and correcting those errors is the industry’s top priority. Such trials, while simplistic and plodding today, could eventually yield better techniques for detecting financial fraud or diagnosing diseases from MRI scans. The verdict? The pattern is as close to perfect as Zapata’s team could have hoped to see. When they finally receive the finished product, they compare it to what an ideal quantum computer would have produced, to gauge the new technology’s limits when it comes to machine learning. With its bars-and-stripes experiment, Zapata’s team must wait hours to receive the final results from Honeywell’s computer, which, in these early days of quantum, is painfully slow. Stefan Woerner, IBM’s quantum applications lead, raises the possibility of quantum computers being used for smarter vehicle routing, the safer management of investment portfolios, as well as a better understanding of protein folding, a complex area of biology with medical implications. Although that result is disputed by rival IBM, it speaks to the technical battle between companies vying for their own supremacy in the nascent industry. The offering, which, like Microsoft’s, uses partners’ hardware, has made it easier than ever for just about anyone to gain access to the technology.Īnother member of the Big Tech club, Google, made waves last fall when it claimed to have achieved “ quantum supremacy,” a term that describes when a quantum computer outpaces a classical supercomputer at a specialized task. “We’re making this technology really accessible and lowering the barriers to adoption,” says Julie Love, Microsoft’s head of quantum computing business development.Īmazon opened the quantum gates in August to all customers of its huge Amazon Web Services cloud-computing division. Microsoft, which is working on its own moonshot quantum-computing hardware, started offering select Azure customers remote access to other partnering companies’ quantum computers in May. ![]() Dario Gil, IBM Research directorĬloud-computing behemoths are latching onto the trend. Some people ask, ‘When are we going to have a real industry? When is commercial quantum going to be real?’ That’s already started. “Some people ask, ‘When are we going to have a real industry? When is commercial quantum going to be real?’ ” says Dario Gil, director of IBM research, during my visit to his mad-scientist-like lab in September. And those that got an early start have a growing list of customers IBM has more than 130 of them across business, academia, and government, for example. Major tech companies are already tussling for quantum dominance. For that reason, and for fear of falling behind rivals like China, the federal government along with private businesses in August promised to pour $1 billion into the fledgling industry. The real value, however, lies in the potential business opportunities that quantum technology is poised to unlock. The total market for quantum hardware rentals is projected to rise to $9 billion in 2030 from $260 million today, according to research firm Tractica. The quantum computing industry is currently small in terms of revenue, but it could grow very big over time. But in the meantime, the machines being built now could provide an edge-a “quantum advantage,” as IBM likes to say-in certain scenarios as soon as 2023. Traits such as “superposition” and “entanglement,” when combined with “interference,” have the potential to solve problems in science and industry that are otherwise intractable, even to state-of-the-art supercomputers.Įxperts expect full-blown quantum computers to be ready in a decade, or longer. Quantum computers are designed to harness the strange and powerful physics properties of so-called qubits (pronounced “cubits”), or quantum bits.
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