433 qubits! IBM launches largest superconducting quantum computer

On Wednesday, IBM held its 2022 IBM Quantum Summit, announcing new breakthroughs in both quantum hardware and software and outlining its groundbreaking vision for quantum-centric supercomputing.

In the future, quantum computers are expected to increase computing speeds up to a million times that of today’s fastest supercomputers!

IBM said on Wednesday it unveiled its most powerful quantum computer processor yet, called Osprey, a 433-qubit machine with three times the number of qubits than the Eagle machine announced last year.

While different quantum computer companies have different claims about the power of their qubits, the number of quantum bits, or qubits, is an indication of the power of a quantum computer using quantum mechanics, and qubits can be created in many different ways .

IBM Osprey has the highest number of qubits among any IBM quantum processors, with three times the number of qubits than the Eagle machine announced last year.

The processor can run complex quantum calculations and has computing power far beyond that of any classical computer. If we use classical bits to represent a state of the IBM Osprey processor, the number would far exceed the total number of atoms in the known universe!

Currently, IBM has more than 20 quantum computers around the world that customers can access through the cloud platform.

"The emergence of the new 433-qubit Osprey processor brings us one step closer to using quantum computers to solve previously unsolvable problems," said Darío Gil, senior vice president and director of research at IBM.

"We are continuously expanding and advancing our quantum technologies, including hardware, software and classical integration, together with our partners and customers around the world, to meet the greatest challenges of our time. This work will be the basis for the upcoming quantum-enabled The foundation of the supercomputing era."

In addition to processors, IBM has also launched a next-generation quantum supporting system.

Gil said IBM is still working hard to develop computers with more than 1,000 qubits. To further scale, the IBM team is trying a new approach.

"The size of the Osprey chip is already very large. And next year, the chip with 1,000 qubits will be even bigger," Gil said. "So since then, we have been designing and building a new, modular-based entire quantum system. Computing system.

IBM calls this modular system Quantum System 2.

Gil said: "Quantum System 2 is the first truly modular quantum computing system, and the system size will continue to expand over time." "Modularity means that the chips themselves need to be connected to each other."

IBM says that by connecting three of these systems, it can build a system with up to 16,632 qubits.

IBM said Quantum System 2 is modular and flexible and can combine multiple processors into a system with communication links.

IBM stated that the company's goal is to launch this system by the end of 2023 and connect multiple Quantum System 2 to become a "quantum-centered supercomputing" cluster.

In other aspects, IBM also demonstrated ecological content such as new IBM Quantum Safe technology, customers and ecosystem expansion.

Jay Gambetta, IBM Fellow and Vice President of Quantum, said: "The 2022 IBM Quantum Summit marks a pivotal moment in the development of the global field of quantum computing. As we continue to increase the scale of quantum systems and make them easier to use, we will see quantum technologies usage and the growth of the quantum computing industry.”

So, what does the release of IBM’s most powerful quantum computer in history mean to us? This starts with what quantum computers can do.

Theoretically, quantum can perform calculations in a much faster way. Many problems that take traditional computers several years to solve may be solved by quantum computers in a matter of days.

Qubits are an important parameter that describes the computing power of a quantum computer - the larger the number of qubits, the more components there are in the computer and the more calculations can be performed exponentially.

So far, quantum computers have demonstrated significant advantages over classical computers in certain tasks.

Many experts even predict that if quantum error correction capabilities and the number of qubits can maintain the development speed of the past two years, quantum computers may be millions of times faster than today's fastest supercomputer!

Therefore, the release of Osprey not only paves the way for the launch of the 1,121-qubit computer Condor in 2023, but also proves that IBM is making steady progress on the road to realizing quantum-centric supercomputing through new hardware, software and system breakthroughs.

In 2016, Big Blue put the first quantum computer on the cloud that anyone could experiment with—a device with five qubits. Each superconducting circuit is cooled to near absolute zero (-273°C).

In 2019 and 2020, they successively launched Falcom and Hummingbird, computers containing 27 and 65 qubits - yes, every quantum computer of IBM is named after a bird.

I really don’t know if there will be a machine named after the “King of Birds” Peacock in the near future. Anyway, I am already looking forward to it!

In 2021, IBM launched Eagle, the first quantum processor with more than 100 qubits. It not only doubled the number of qubits previously achieved, but also became IBM's first quantum computer with over 100 bits.

Today, the launch of Osprey has once again increased the number of qubits by nearly three times! We can fully believe that IBM will be able to deliver Condor, the world's first universal quantum computer with more than 1,000 qubits, in 2023.

Of course, Big Blue’s ambitions go far beyond 1,000 qubits.

This summer, IBM just released its latest roadmap, planning to build a qubit-centric supercomputer.

We can clearly see from the planning diagram of the conference: In addition to Condor, they also plan to introduce a new coupler in the next QPUHeron released in 2023 to adjust the coupling between qubits and demonstrate There are plans to release 4,000 or more qubits in 2025.

Oliver Dial, chief hardware architect of IBM's quantum computing department, said: "By the end of 2024, in our '100x100 Plan', we expect to reduce error rates by running multiple Heron chips in parallel to achieve 100 qubits wide, 100 gates Deep system, thus completing the transcendence of traditional computers.”

IBM also announced that they are working with communications technology company Vodafone to develop post-quantum cryptography. The cryptography is resistant to future quantum computers that could quickly undermine modern cryptography.

Of course, Dial also admitted: Although so far, IBM can generally make steady progress according to the plan, the number of bits is obviously only part of the huge and arduous exploration of quantum computing. Longer coherence times and noise reduction also need to be taken into consideration.