IBM announced on Tuesday that it plans to have a practical quantum computer until 2029 and presented the detailed steps that the company will follow to achieve this goal.
Quantum computers use quantum mechanics to solve problems that would take thousands of years or more to classic computers.
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However, current quantum computers need to dedicate much of their ability to correct errors, which makes it generally not faster than classic computers.
IBM, which also aims to have a much larger system by 2033, plans to build the quantum computer “Starling” on a New York State Construction Data Center and said it will have about 200 logical quibits.
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QUBITs are the fundamental unit of quantum computing, and 200 QBits would be enough to start presenting advantages over classic computers.
IBM is investing in quantum computing with other technology giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, as well as several startups that have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in capital.
They all face the same basic challenge: the which are fast, but they produce many mistakes. Scientists may use some of the machine’s quibits to correct these errors, but they need to have enough quibits to do useful work.
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IBM has changed its approach to this problem in 2019 and claims to have found a new algorithm that will drastically reduce the number of quibits needed to correction errors.
In an interview, Jay Gambetta, IBM’s vice president responsible for the IBM’s quantum initiative, explained that the researchers adopted a different approach from the previous one, when they prepared the theory of a method of error correction and then tried to build a chip that corresponded to this theory.
Instead, IBM’s quantum team analyzed which chips are practical to build and, from that, created a error correction approach based on these chips. This has given IBM confidence to build a series of systems between this year and 2027 that will finally result in larger systems.
