It has not yet been the premiere of Condorthe world’s first universal quantum computer that will exceed 1,000 power qubitsand IBM 2025 is already marked as the deadline to launch an even more powerful one on the market with more than 4,000 qubits.
In 2023 we will be able to see Condor already working as an efficient device capable of finding answers faster and more agile than classic computers, which would take many years to solve otherwise. Despite its hardware limitations, Condor is a giant step forward.
IBM’s goal for the next year is to develop workflows built on the cloud, to bring a serverless approach to software stack core quantum and offer developers advanced simplicity and flexibility, offering efficient solutions to quantum systems.
But that’s not all, and together with Condor it will break out with force Heronthe first modular quantum processor that will help create quantum computers larger than 4,000 qubits by 2025. Heron only has 133 qubits, but thanks to his improved adjustable coupling architecture to join your qubits together (unlike Condor’s fixed-coupled architecture) and modular design will help create them.
Looking to 2024, IBM plans to launch Flamingo Y Crossbilland by 2025 kookaburra. With respect to Crossbill, it should be noted that it will be a 408-qubit processor, made up of three microchips, while Flamingo will be a 462-qubit module that plans to link them together through a meter-long quantum communication. From this technological application, it could be possible to exceed the 4,158 qubits. By the time Kookaburra breaks into the sector, applications in machine learning, natural sciences and optimization problems, among others, will be widespread.
In May, IBM released the news that it would begin to provide greater speed and quality to its quantum computers through a layer of intelligent software orchestration, that could overcome infrastructure challenges and distribute workloads. It therefore focuses on robust and scalable quantum hardware, cutting-edge quantum software to enable powerful quantum programs, and a global ecosystem of quantum-ready communities.
IBM’s first quantum roadmap was put on the table in 2020. Using the software platform Qiskit Runtime it was possible to multiply by 120 the speed of the quantum execution times. By 2023, it is planned to expand these primitives with capacities that allow them to be executed in parallelized quantum processors, generating the acceleration of the user’s application. will be through Quantum Serverless in your main software stack.
In another order, IBM announced the launch of IBM Quantum Safe to take cyber resilience to the maximum level and protect its customers’ data against the threats posed by advances in quantum computing. And it is that the step towards quantum security cryptographic encryption It is essential for progress.
The IBM research and development team has been working since 2016 in the quantum computer segment, placing the first in the cloud in that year. It had 5 qubits, each one like a superconducting circuit cooled to near absolute zero.
Already in 2019 the company created the Falcon of 27 qubits, in 2020 the hummingbird of 65 qubits, in 2021 the Eagle of 127 qubits (first quantum processor that exceeded 100 qubits, with quantum circuits that cannot be accurately simulated reliably in a classical computer) and in 2022 the Osprey of 433 qubits.
Earlier in 2020, Canadian quantum computing company, D-Wave Systemspresented a system of 5,000 qubits, but it was specialized in solving optimization problems and did not cover as much as Condor.
IBM Modular Quantum Computing Keys
The company established three scalability regimes for their quantum processors.
Building capabilities to communicate operations between processors
With a view to a broader set of techniques required for practical quantum systems, improving error mitigation and intelligent orchestration.
Chip-level short-haul couplers
They will serve to connect several chips that in turn will form a single larger processor, introducing essential modularity for scalability.
Provide quantum communication links
Among the quantum processors themselves with the aim of connecting clusters and forming a larger and more powerful quantum system.
IBM does not stop growing and the release of Kookaburra will prove it. A quantum processor of more than 4,000 qubits will mark a before and after as it is made up of numerous clusters with a modular scale.
