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IBM unveils its much-awaited 1,000+ qubit quantum processor “Condor” alongside a utility-scale processor dubbed IBM Quantum Heron, which is the first in a series of utility-scale quantum processors that the company took four years to build.
Quantum computers are the next frontier of computing and therefore caused companies worldwide to join the race to build the platform that everybody would want to use. Even today’s fastest supercomputers are years behind the potential of quantum computers, the capabilities of which keep improving with the addition of quantum bits or qubits in the processor. So it is safe to say that a 1,000+ qubit processor is a big deal.
According to Interesting Engineering, IBM also recently announced the launch of its Quantum System Two, a modular quantum computer located in New York that has already begun operations and works with three Heron processors. IBM has reportedly improved the error rates in the Heron by a factor of five when compared to its predecessor the Eagle, which is in line with IBM’s approach to have error-corrected qubits by the end of the decade.
IBM states that we are currently in Era 2 of quantum computing, where there should be efforts to reduce and mitigate errors and develop proof-of-concept applications. In Era 3, quantum computers will deliver error correction and will be able to scale up. The company has even shared its roadmap along with names and features of successive processors that will lead to this quantum reality.
The company also aims to make the development of quantum computing accessible to a large number of users and is developing Qiskit- a software stack that will allow developers to create code for various applications. Qiskit Patterns are meant to allow users to develop, deploy, and execute workflows in both classic and quantum computing environments.
With these developments and its intended future “roadmap”, IBM has laid milestones for the development of its quantum computing systems, and given its track record, it looks like the company will make quantum computing a reality in the coming decade.
