IBM works on an ambitious Quantum Advantage

During this year's CES, IBM showed a breakthrough device: IBM Q System One, the first quantum computer to be ready for commercial use.

IBM researchers have set themselves an ambitious goal. Every year, they want to double the performance of quantum computers so that they will eventually be faster or more efficient than classical computers.

IBM's goal is what they call "Quantum Advantage." According to this assumption, quantum computers are to gain a "significant" advantage over classical computers. By "significant" is meant a system that will either be hundreds or thousands of times faster than quantum computers, or it will use a small fraction of the memory needed by quantum machines or it will be able to perform tasks that classic computers do not.

The efficiency of a quantum computer can be described either by means of how individual qubits (quantum bits) behave or as the overall performance of the whole system.

IBM reported that Q System One can boast one of the lowest percentages of errors ever measured. The average error rate on a two-bit logic gateway is less than 2%, and the best measured result is less than 1%. In addition, this system is close to the physical limit of coherence times, which in the case of Q System One amounted to an average of 73 ms. It means that errors made by the device are quite small and we are approaching the minimum possible percentage of errors, said the researchers of IBM.

The Blue Giant also created Quantum Volume, a quantum computer performance measurement system as a whole. It takes into account errors on gates, measurement errors and compiler performance. If we want to achieve Quantum Advantage in the 1920s, then each year Quantum Volume must be at least doubled, the researchers said. For now, they manage to achieve the goal. The performance of the five-additive Tenerife system from 2017 was 4. In 2018, the 20-qt IBM Q system achieved the result in the Quantum Volume test 8. The latest Q System One slightly exceeded 16.

We believe that the future of computers is the future of quantum computers, IBM specialists say.

IBM is always one of the leading companies in technology as we all know. That’s why we are hopeful with their plans and projects. Sure, we all will see the results by the time.