Quantum computers are one step closer to real life

Microsoft and Quantinuum say they have made an important breakthrough in making quantum computers a reality by making them more reliable.

According to a joint statement on April 3, Microsoft and Quantinuum said they have applied a physical qubit error correction algorithm, allowing to yield about 4 reliable qubits from 30 physical qubits. This is considered the best error correction capability available, helping quantum computers move one step closer to commercialization.

Close-up of a quantum computer model from Microsoft. Photo: Microsoft Cloud Blog

While traditional computers rely on binary bits – on or off, denoted 1 and 0, to process information, quantum computers use so-called quantum bits, or qubits, as their foundation and can handle 0, 1, or both at the same time. Since the basic information of quantum computers can represent all possibilities simultaneously, they are theoretically much faster and more powerful than conventional computers used in everyday life.

However, for many years, the barrier that prevented quantum computers from entering the real world was that they were susceptible to processing errors, disturbing the qubits so that the final result was wrong. Therefore, they need to be able to fix errors more quickly and accurately.

To solve this problem, quantum researchers often build more physical qubits than needed, using error correction techniques to create a smaller number of qubits that are reliable and useful. According to Jason Zander, Microsoft's executive vice president of strategic and technology missions, four reliable qubits from 30 physical qubits "is the best ratio from a quantum chip ever demonstrated."

"We performed more than 14,000 individual experiments without a single error. This result is 800 times better than any experiment ever recorded," Zander told Reuters . Microsoft said it plans to offer this technology to test cloud computing customers in the coming months.

Experts in the field of quantum agree that for a quantum computer, 100 reliable qubits are the number needed to defeat a conventional supercomputer. However, neither Microsoft nor Quantinuum said how many years it would take them to reach 100 reliable qubits.

“But we are now two years, if not more, off the path to reaching that number of reliable qubits,” said Ilyas Khan, Quantinuum product manager.

Founded in 2021, Quantinuum combines the quantum hardware group from Honeywell Quantum Solutions (HQS) and the quantum software group Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) - two units launched in 2014. Quantinuum has developed a number of products. software and middleware that serve quantum computing platforms such as quantum chemistry, quantum machine learning, and quantum artificial intelligence.

It is considered to have great potential in fields such as medicine, military, research... but up to now, most of the power of quantum computers is still in the laboratory, not yet applied in practice. According to some experts, the results of Microsoft and Quantinuum are a new step forward in quantum computer research - a machine with computing speed many times faster than traditional computers.

According to Independent , with the progress of Microsoft and a series of big names such as IBM, Google and Chinese companies recently, quantum computers will quickly appear in life. Citing expert opinions, this site predicts that the system will soon surpass conventional computers in practical tasks in the next 1-2 years.

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