Record-breaking quantum computer has more than 1000 qubits (2024)
The world’s first quantum computer to exceed 1000 qubits has more than double that of the previous record holder, IBM’s Osprey machine, which has 433 qubits. Though having more qubits doesn’t necessarily mean better performance, large numbers of them will be needed for future error-free quantum computers that are useful, unlike today’s noise-filled research machines.
The largest quantum computers, such as those from IBM and Google, use superconducting wires cooled to extremely low temperatures for their quantum bits, or qubits. But the record-breaking machine from California-based start-up Atom Computing, which has 1180 qubits, uses neutral atoms trapped by lasers in a 2-dimensional grid.
One advantage of this design is that it is easy to scale up the system and add many more qubits into the grid, says Rob Hays, CEO of Atom Computing. Any useful quantum computer in the future that is free of errors, a feature called fault tolerance, will need at least tens of thousands of dedicated error-correcting qubits working alongside the programmable qubits, he says.
Read moreRecord-breaking number of qubits entangled in a quantum computer
“If we’re only going to scale by dozens of qubits, like most of the trapped ion and superconducting systems have been scaling up until now, it’s going to take a very long time to get to the fault tolerant era,” says Hays. “With the neutral atom approach and the speed of scaling that we have, we will be able to get there much more quickly.” Hays says the team aims to multiply the amount of qubits in the machine by around 10 every couple of years or so.
Unlike conventional computing bits, which can have a value of 1 or 0 and are largely interchangeable, qubits are more varied, having a range of different properties depending on how they are made.
Sign up to our The Daily newsletter
The latest science news delivered to your inbox, every day.
Neutral atom qubits lend themselves better to quantum entanglement, a strange quantum effect where qubits are linked so that measuring a property of one qubit reveals that of the other. They are also more stable, with qubits in Atom Computing’s machine keeping their quantum state from collapsing – a feature called fault tolerance, which is essential for error correction – for almost a minute. IBM’s Osprey, for example, has coherence times of around 70 to 80 microseconds.
These long coherence times are due to the ytterbium atoms that Hays and his team use as qubits. Most neutral atom machines use an atom’s electron as the quantum element with which to do computing, but this can be easily affected by the powerful lasers used to hold it in place. With ytterbium, a quantum property of the atom’s nucleus called spin can be used, which is much less sensitive to disturbances. “The nucleus just doesn’t interact with the outside environment as strongly as the electron does,” says Ben Bloom at Atom Computing.
Because qubits have so many different features, it can be difficult to compare across different machines, but Bloom says Atom Computing’s machine is comparable in processing ability to IBM’s, though the company has yet to release figures on this.
The team hopes to offer the machine to customers next year for cloud computing applications, similar to what companies like IBM do today. “Atom Computing’s machine can’t currently perform computing operations on all the qubits at the same time, which will be required for fully error corrected machines,” says Bloom.
“There’s multiple groups now building systems that will have 1000, and even several thousand, atomic qubits,” says Mark Saffman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This is really where the frontier of the field is now, with this 1000-plus scale that people are developing.”
However, more details of how the machine works will need to be released by Atom Computing before it can be properly assessed, says Saffman, such as how many of its qubits can be used and have logical operations performed on them.
Mathematician warns US spies may be weakening next-gen encryptionQuantum computers may soon be able to crack encryption methods in use today, so plans are already under way to replace them with new, secure algorithms. Now it seems the US National Security Agency may be undermining that process
The world's first quantum computer to exceed 1000 qubits has more than double that of the previous record holder, IBM's Osprey machine, which has 433 qubits.
The initial 100-qubit Phoenix machine was built on a platform of strontium-87 atoms for its qubits. The new 1,225-qubit quantum computer uses ytterbium-171 atoms to create its qubits.
It shows that we can get to 1000 qubits, and that sets us up for the future,” he says. Condor has 1121 qubits, just 59 fewer than Atom Computing. To make Condor, the IBM team focused on improving the quantum computer's input mechanisms and how its output is read.
A 256-bit encryption is considered to be highly secure and it would take classical computers millions of years to crack it. However, quantum computers could potentially crack this level of encryption in mere seconds or minutes.
Around 4000 qubits are needed for 2048-bit RSA. While these are logical qubits, not physical (logical qubits will require additional physical qubits for error correction), the resource estimates keep decreasing.
The 1,121-qubit IBM Quantum Condor chip is built on the architecture of its previous flagship, the 127-qubit Eagle chip. In size, it is just shy of the record holder, a 1,125-qubit machine unveiled by the company Atom in October.
By most estimates, a single qubit costs around $10K and needs to be supported by a host of microwave controller electronics, coaxial cabling and other materials that require large controlled rooms in order to function. In hardware alone, a useful quantum computer costs tens of billions of dollars to build.
Google's Sycamore quantum computer operates with 53 qubits. However, the latest system run by Google has a total of 70 operational qubits This large number of qubits allows Sycamore to perform complex calculations much faster than traditional computers.
Now comes the hard part. After making the world's largest quantum chip (and cryogenic fridge), Big Blue is taking a more modular approach to build an error-corrected computer.
In 2022, IBM set a world record with a 433-qubit quantum chip, but experts predict we'll need a lot more qubits before quantum computers can make good on their promise.
Hence, it is safe to say that AES-128 encryption is safe against brute-force attacks. AES has never been cracked yet and it would take large amounts of computational power to crack this key. Governmental organizations and businesses trust the AES for securing sensitive information.
calculated that breaking bitcoin's encryption in a 10-minute window would require a quantum computer with 1.9 billion qubits, while cracking it in an hour would require a machine with 317 million qubits. Even allowing for a whole day, this figure only drops to 13 million qubits.
That same traditional computer would take 34,000 years to crack a password that was 12 characters and consisted of at least one upper case character, one number, and one symbol. To sum that up: password – cracked instantly. PassWorD – cracked in 22 minutes.
While necessary for maintaining strong security for a site, 2048 bit RSA key lengths are very processor intensive; quite a bit more (upwards of 4 times) intensive as 1024 bit keys. Before moving to these key lengths, it is important to understand the effect on the system it will have.
2030+ Deliver quantum-centric supercomputers with 1,000's of logical qubits. Beyond 2033, quantum-centric supercomputers will include thousands of qubits capable of running 1 billion gates, unlocking the full power of quantum computing.
Researchers worked out how to entangle three or four particles of light in this more complex way in the late 1980s. More recently, as many as 27 qubits have been entangled in quantum computers. Now, Xiao-bo Zhu at the University of Science and Technology of China and his colleagues have pushed that number to 51 qubits.
Qubits, on the other hand, can take on an infinite number of different values—more like dimmer knobs than simple switches. Qubits can also store a superposition, which is akin to a switch that is both up and down at the same time.
Qubits can operate in binary in that they can be set to 0 or 1. However, due to their quantum mechanical nature, qubits can do much more. They can exist in a superposition state, where they embody aspects of both 0 and 1 simultaneously.
A qubit can store a single bit – the smallest possible unit of digital information – and is the fundamental building block of a future quantum computer. Qubits made of semiconducting materials, such as those being researched in Basel, are among the most promising candidates.
Introduction: My name is Tish Haag, I am a excited, delightful, curious, beautiful, agreeable, enchanting, fancy person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
