IBM Quantum Computing

Fri May 6 09:31:32 PDT 2016

Well, we have been hearing about this Quantum technology for years... It's
not mature yet, but....
potentially... when it will be mature... it will be able to break any
crypto-system.
(oh, maybe it is already mature in the Catacombs of the NSA).
_______

https://www.research.ibm.com/quantum/#start
https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/49661.wss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf7D8snlsnQ
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/ibm-puts-a-quantum-processor-in-the-cloud

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 <http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/> 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
<http://www.ibm.com/quantumcomputing>, 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 around 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
<https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/photo/48259.wss>.

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
<http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/> technologies), develop
new materials science to transform industries, and search large volumes of big
data <http://www.ibm.com/big-data/us/en/>.

*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
<http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/> 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
<https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/46725.wss> 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 <http://www.ibm.com/frontiers>. 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.

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