Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director, IBM Research, said: “This moment represents the birth of quantum cloud computing. By giving hands on access to IBM’s experimental quantum systems, the IBM Quantum Experience will make it easier for researchers and the scientific community to accelerate innovations in the quantum field, and help discover new applications for this technology.”
The quantum processor, housed at the TJ. Watson Research Center in New York, is said to represent the latest advancement in IBM’s quantum architecture. IBM employs qubits made with superconducting metals on a silicon chip and these can be designed and manufactured using standard silicon fabrication techniques. Now, IBM scientists have combined five qubits in the lattice architecture, demonstrating an operation known as parity measurement. However, IBM believes processors with 50 to 100 qubits could be available within a decade. A 50 qubit device would outperform all of today’s supercomputers..
“Access to early quantum computing prototypes will be key in imagining and developing future applications,” said Dario Gil, vice president of science and solutions, IBM Research. “If you want to understand what a true quantum computer will do for you and how it works, this is the place to do it. You won’t experience it anywhere else.”
