FORTUNE DECEMBER 2020 /JANUARY 2021 39COMPUTINGQuantum Enters
a New Dimension
For years, companies have been
spending big money to develop
quantum computers. Now those
bets are starting to pay off.
BY ROBERT HACKETTSOFTWARE DEVELOPERS on a con-
ference call are trying to get a
quantum computer, a buzzy succes-
sor to today’s supercomputers, to do
some of its magic. They want to see
how well the experimental machine
can reproduce a simple pattern of
bars and stripes.
After the team tees up some
software code, a scientist with
dreadlocks clicks a button to put the
computer, located in a lab outside
Denver, into action. A laser generatesa magnetic pulse in the
machine that sets atoms
inside a vacuum cham-
ber—the computer’s brain,
of sorts—into motion.
Engineers with Zapata
Computing, a startup that
helps business customers
create algorithms to use on
quantum computers, are
conducting the test. The
company is renting use of
a machine owned by in-THE BRIEFIBM is building
a new quantum
computer it hopes
will be far more
powerful than
today’s machines. CONNIE ZHOU—COURTESY OF IBM