For academic researchers, that’s as powerful a motivator
as a competitive advantage is to the likes of JPMorgan.
And there are several companies motivated by both
VFLHQWL¿FDGYDQFHVDQGSUR¿WV,%0LQ6HSWHPEHU
published a roadmap of how it will get from this year’s
27-qubit computer to a 1,121-qubit processor named
Condor by 2023. Eventually, the company hopes to build
a fully fault-tolerant computer composed of a million
qubits, though it did not peg a target year for that
achievement. It’s a daunting project, even to IBM’s own
engineers. Of a functioning quantum computer of that
scale, Chow says, “I can draw on a piece of paper what it
might look like, but I’d probably be wrong.”
Aside from the challenges of getting that many qubits to
play nicely together and maintain their coherence,
Condor will also require advancements in support
systems and physical architecture. A quantum computer
with low-temperature superconducting qubits is a
behemoth and a curiously beautiful sight to behold, with
multiple dilution bridges and cryogenic cooling
chambers. Tubes and hoses connect all the parts
together.
All computers generate heat, but quantum computers are
veritable furnaces—and they’re extremely susceptible to
UDGLDWLRQDQGWHPSHUDWXUHÀXFWXDWLRQVLQWKH¿UVWSODFH
IBM points out that today’s commercial refrigerators will
QRWEHFDSDEOHRIH̆HFWLYHO\FRROLQJDQGLVRODWLQJD
million-qubit computer. So new refrigerators must be on
the quantum roadmap as well. One potential design is a
10-foot-tall and 6-foot-wide super-fridge.
“Ultimately, we envision a future where quantum
interconnects link dilution refrigerators each holding a
million qubits like the intranet links supercomputing
processors,” IBM Quantum Vice President Jay Gambetta
wrote in a blog describing the project.
Waiting decades
for the next leap
in quantum
information
technology
seems like an
eternity. But
progress is
relative.