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IBM and D-Wave Quantum Computing Announcements

posted by cmn32480 on Sunday May 21 2017, @10:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe-IBM-isn't-all-services dept.

takyon writes:

https://www.hpcwire.com/2017/05/18/ibm-d-wave-report-quantum-computing-advances/

IBM said this week it has built and tested a pair of quantum computing processors, including a prototype of a commercial version. That progress follows an announcement earlier this week that commercial quantum computer developer D-Wave Systems has garnered venture funding that could total up to $50 million to build it next-generation machine with up to 2,000 qubits.

[...] Meanwhile, IBM researchers continue to push the boundaries of quantum computing as part of its IBM Q initiative launched in March to promote development of a "universal" quantum computer. Access to a 16-qubit processor via the IBM cloud would allow developers and researchers to run quantum algorithms. The new version replaces an earlier 5-qubit processor.

The company also rolled on Wednesday (May 17) the first prototype of a 17-qubit commercial processor, making it IBM's most powerful quantum device. The prototype will serve as the foundation of IBM Q's commercial access program. The goal is to eventually scale future prototypes to 50 or more qubits.

The article also notes Hewlett Packard Enterprise's prototype of "The Machine", with 160 terabytes of RAM.

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 22 2017, @05:33AM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 22 2017, @05:33AM (#513326) Journal
    The thing is, current computation is already vast overkill for a variety of computation needs while quantum computers are extremely primitive (handful of qubits, for example). Gambling a huge company on the remote possibility that QC can be massively accelerated at some point in the near future seems a bad idea to me.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @05:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @05:53AM (#513335)

    You're right, it isn't worth the risk; if they do get in early though it may be very valuable in the future.