YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y.,
May 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM
(NYSE: IBM) Research announced today that for the first time ever
it is making quantum computing available to members of the public,
who can access and run experiments on IBM's quantum processor.
IBM scientists have built a quantum processor that users can
access through a first-of-a-kind quantum computing platform
delivered via the IBM Cloud onto any desktop or mobile device. IBM
believes quantum computing is the future of computing and has the
potential to solve certain problems that are impossible to solve on
today's supercomputers.
The cloud-enabled quantum computing platform, called IBM Quantum
Experience, will allow users to run algorithms and experiments on
IBM's quantum processor, work with the individual quantum bits
(qubits), and explore tutorials and simulations of what might be
possible with quantum computing.
The quantum processor is composed of five superconducting qubits
and is housed at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in
New York. The five-qubit processor
represents the latest advancement in IBM's quantum architecture
that can scale to larger quantum systems. It is the leading
approach towards building a universal quantum computer.
A universal quantum computer can be programmed to perform any
computing task and will be exponentially faster than classical
computers for a number of important applications for science and
business.
A universal quantum computer does not exist today, but IBM
envisions medium-sized quantum processors of 50-100 qubits to be
possible in the next decade. With a quantum computer built of just
50 qubits, none of today's TOP500 supercomputers could successfully
emulate it, reflecting the tremendous potential of this technology.
The community of quantum computer scientists and theorists is
working to harness this power, and applications in optimization and
chemistry will likely be the first to demonstrate quantum
speed-up.
"Quantum computers are very different from today's computers,
not only in what they look like and are made of, but more
importantly in what they can do. Quantum computing is becoming a
reality and it will extend computation far beyond what is
imaginable with today's computers," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and
director, IBM Research. "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."
With Moore's Law running out of steam, quantum computing will be
among the technologies that could usher in a new era of innovation
across industries. This leap forward in computing could lead to the
discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs and completely safeguard
cloud computing systems. It could also unlock new facets of
artificial intelligence (which could lead to future, more powerful
Watson technologies), develop new materials science to transform
industries, and search large volumes of big data.
IBM Quantum Experience
Quantum information is very fragile and needs to be protected
from any errors that can result from heat and electromagnetic
radiation. Signals are sent in and out of a cryogenic dilution
refrigerator to measure operations on the quantum processor.
The IBM team has made a number of robust engineering advances
both at the device level and in the electronic controls to give IBM
Quantum Experience users unprecedented and reliably high-quality
performance in this five-qubit processor.
Coupled with software expertise from the IBM Research ecosystem,
the team has built a dynamic user interface on the IBM Cloud
platform that allows users to easily connect to the quantum
hardware via the cloud. The team sees the introduction to the
public of this complete quantum computing framework as just the
start of a new user community, which embraces the quantum world and
how it works.
In the future, users will have the opportunity to contribute and
review their results in the community hosted on the IBM Quantum
Experience and IBM scientists will be directly engaged to offer
more research and insights on new advances. IBM plans to add more
qubits and different processor arrangements to the IBM Quantum
Experience over time, so users can expand their experiments and
help uncover new applications for the technology.
Quantum computing – a different way of thinking
We live in a world where classical physics defines our
experiences and our intuition, and ultimately how we process
information. However, nature at the atomic level is governed by a
different set of rules known as quantum mechanics. It is beyond the
reach of classical computers to solve problems that exist in nature
in which quantum mechanics plays a role, for example, understanding
how molecules behave.
To overcome this, in 1981, Richard Feynman proposed to build
computers based on the laws of quantum mechanics. Over three
decades later, IBM is helping to make this a reality.
Quantum computing works fundamentally differently from today's
computers. A classical computer makes use of bits to process
information, where each bit represents either a one or a zero. In
contrast, a qubit can represent a one, a zero, or both at once,
which is known as superposition. This property along with other
quantum effects enable quantum computers to perform certain
calculations vastly faster than is possible with classical
computers.
Most of today's quantum computing research in academia and
industry is focused on building a universal quantum computer. The
major challenges include creating qubits of high quality and
packaging them together in a scalable way, so they can perform
complex calculations in a controllable way.
IBM employs superconducting qubits that are made with
superconducting metals on a silicon chip and can be designed and
manufactured using standard silicon fabrication techniques. Last
year, IBM scientists demonstrated critical breakthroughs to detect
quantum errors by combining superconducting qubits in latticed
arrangements, and whose quantum circuit design is the only physical
architecture that can scale to larger dimensions.
Now, IBM scientists have achieved a further advance by combining
five qubits in the lattice architecture, which demonstrates a key
operation known as a parity measurement – the basis of many quantum
error correction protocols. The road towards universal quantum
computing hinges upon the achievement of quantum error correction,
and the IBM team has taken another important step down this
challenging path.
New frontiers for quantum computing
There has been tremendous progress and interest in the field of
quantum of computing in recent years. By giving users access to the
IBM Quantum Experience, it will help businesses and organizations
begin to understand the technology's potential, for universities to
grow their teaching programs in quantum computing and related
subjects, and for students to become aware of promising new career
paths.
"It is a beautiful challenge to pursue the path to build the
first universal quantum computer, but it requires us to change how
we think about the world. 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."
IBM's quantum computing platform is a core initiative within the
newly formed IBM Research Frontiers Institute. The Frontiers
Institute is a consortium that develops and shares ground-breaking
computing technologies to spur world-changing innovations.
Companies from diverse industries can leverage IBM's research
talent and cutting-edge infrastructure to explore what the future
of quantum computing may mean for their organization and business.
Founding members of the Frontiers Institute include Samsung, JSR,
and Honda.
To access the IBM Quantum Experience and for more information on
IBM's quantum computing research, please visit
www.ibm.com/quantumcomputing. To learn more about the IBM Research
Frontiers Institute, please visit www.ibm.com/frontiers.
Note to journalists and bloggers: You can view and download
b-roll on IBM's quantum computing efforts at
http://www.thenewsmarket.com/ibm. The video is available in HD,
standard definition broadcast and streaming quality.
IBM Quantum Computing Images:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskySR8fJ
Videos:
- Explore a 360 Degree View Inside the IBM Quantum Lab
- Overview: IBM Brings Quantum Computing to the Cloud
- Running an Experiment in the IBM Quantum
Experience
- A Tour of the IBM Quantum Lab
Articles:
- THINK blog: The Quantum Age of Computing is Here by
Dario Gil, VP of Science and
Solutions, IBM Research
- IBM Research blog: It's time to build a quantum community by
Jerry Chow and Jay Gambetta, IBM Research
About IBM Research
For more than seven decades, IBM
Research has defined the future of information technology with more
than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents.
Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, 10
U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of
Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the National Academy of
Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of
Fame. For more information about IBM Research, visit
www.ibm.com/research.
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Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO
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SOURCE IBM Research