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This week, IBM announced a pair of shiny new quantum computers.

The companys Condor processor is the first quantum chip of its kind with over 1,000 qubits, a feat that would have made big headlines just a few years ago. But earlier this year, a startup, Atom Computing, unveiled a 1,180-qubit quantum computer using a different approach. And although IBM says Condor demonstrates it can reliably produce high-quality qubits at scale, itll likely be the largest single chip the company makes until sometime next decade.

Instead of growing the number of qubits crammed onto each chip, IBM will focus on getting the most out of the qubits it has. In this respect, the second chip announced, Heron, is the future.

Though Heron has fewer qubits than Condorjust 133its significantly faster and less error-prone. The company plans to combine several of these smaller chips into increasingly more powerful systems, a bit like the multicore processors powering smartphones. The first of these, System Two, also announced this week, contains three linked Condor chips.

IBM also updated its quantum roadmap, a timeline of key engineering milestones, through 2033. Notably, the company is aiming to complete a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. The machine wont be large enough to run complex quantum algorithms, like the one expected to one day break standard encryption. Still, its a bold promise.

Practical quantum computers will be able to tackle problems that cant be solved using classical computers. But todays systems are far too small and error-ridden to realize that dream. To get there, engineers are working on a solution called error-correction.

A qubit is the fundamental unit of a quantum computer. In your laptop, the basic unit of information is a 1 or 0 represented by a transistor thats either on or off. In a quantum computer, the unit of information is 1, 0, orthanks to quantum weirdnesssome combination of the two. The physical component can be an atom, electron, or tiny superconducting loop of wire.

Opting for the latter, IBM makes its quantum computers by cooling loops of wire, or transmons, to temperatures near absolute zero and placing them into quantum states. Heres the problem. Qubits are incredibly fragile, easily falling out of these quantum states throughout a calculation. This introduces errors that make todays machines unreliable.

One way to solve this problem is to minimize errors. IBMs made progress here. Heron uses some new hardware to significantly speed up how quickly the system places pairs of qubits into quantum statesan operation known as a gatelimiting the number of errors that crop up and spread to neighboring qubits (researchers call this crosstalk).

Its a beautiful device, Gambetta told Ars Technica. Its five times better than the previous devices, the errors are way less, [and] crosstalk cant really be measured.

But you cant totally eliminate errors. In the future, redundancy will also be key.

By spreading information between a group of qubits, you can reduce the impact of any one error and also check for and correct errors in the group. Because it takes multiple physical qubits to form one of these error-corrected logical qubits, you need an awful lot of them to complete useful calculations. This is why scale matters.

Software can also help. IBM is already employing a technique called error mitigation, announced earlier this year, in which it simulates likely errors and subtracts them from calculations. Theyve also identified a method of error-correction that reduces the number of physical qubits in a logical qubit by nearly an order of magnitude. But all this will require advanced forms of connectivity between qubits, which could be the biggest challenge ahead.

Youre going to have to tie them together, Dario Gil, senior vice president and director of research at IBM, told Reuters. Youre going to have to do many of these things together to be practical about it. Because if not, its just a paper exercise.

Something that makes IBM unique in the industry is that it publishes a roadmap looking a decade into the future.

This may seem risky, but to date, theyve stuck to it. Alongside the Condor and Heron news, IBM also posted an updated version of its roadmap.

Next year, theyll release an upgraded version of Heron capable of 5,000 gate operations. After Heron comes Flamingo. Theyll link seven of these Flamingo chips into a single system with over 1,000 qubits. They also plan to grow Flamingos gate count by roughly 50 percent a year until it hits 15,000 in 2028. In parallel, the company will work on error-correction, beginning with memory, then moving on to communication and gates.

All this will culminate in a 200-qubit, fault-tolerant chip called Starling in 2029 and a leap in gate operations to 100 million. Starling will give way to the bigger Blue Jay in 2033.

Though it may be the most open about them, IBM isnt alone in its ambitions.

Google is pursuing the same type of quantum computer and has been focused on error-correction over scaling for a few years. Then there are other kinds of quantum computers entirelysome use charged ions as qubits while others use photons, electrons, or like Atom Computing, neutral atoms. Each approach has its tradeoffs.

When it comes down to it, theres a simple set of metrics for you to compare the performance of the quantum processors, Jerry Chow, director of quantum systems at IBM, told the Verge. Its scale: what number of qubits can you get to and build reliably? Quality: how long do those qubits live for you to perform operations and calculations on? And speed: how quickly can you actually run executions and problems through these quantum processors?

Atom Computing favors neutral atoms because theyre identicaleliminating the possibility of manufacturing flawscan be controlled wirelessly, and operate at room temperature. Chow agrees there are interesting things happening in the nuetral atom space but speed is a drawback. It comes down to that speed, he said. Anytime you have these actual atomic items, either an ion or an atom, your clock rates end up hurting you.

The truth is the race isnt yet won, and wont be for awhile yet. New advances or unforeseen challenges could rework the landscape. But Chow said the companys confidence in its approach is what allows them to look ahead 10 years.

And to me its more that there are going to be innovations within that are going to continue to compound over those 10 years, that might make it even more attractive as time goes on. And thats just the nature of technology, he said.

Image Credit: IBM

Link:
IBM Is Planning to Build Its First Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer by 2029 - Singularity Hub

These quantum computing stocks promise to improve AI and have investors' attention

Source: Bartlomiej K. Wroblewski / Shutterstock.com

Quantum computing is an emerging field of computer science that leverages classical physics and mathematics. The fields promise is simple: to increase the speed with which computers can do calculations. Thus, stocks in the field are highly attractive to investors in this increasingly digitized world.

The most important thing to understand here is the idea of qubits. Classical computers process information in bits, which are defined as zeros and ones. A qubit is essentially a quantum bit and can take on the properties of a zero or a one at different times.

Lets look at three quantum computing stocks in the sector.

Source: Shutterstock

Quantum Computing (NASDAQ:QUBT) It continues to develop quantum computing technologies and is a relatively inexpensive and high-risk stock. Shares trade at around 90 cents but, based on analyst projections, have the potential to Increase to $9. Its important to note that the sole analyst gave that $9 price target with the firms coverage.

The company is building what it refers to as quantum reservoir computers. The most important thing for investors is that those computers promise to bring quantum computing capabilities to fields including artificial intelligence. That means that the speed and efficiency of computing will increase while energy consumption will fall dramatically.This then makes QUBT one of those quantum computing stocks to consider.

So, theoretically, quantum computing makes a lot of sense for investors who hope to take advantage of the boom in artificial intelligence. However, practical, real-world limits need to be considered as well. primarily, Im referring to financial results. The company is still very young and reported revenues of $50,000 during the third quarter. That led to a loss of $8.3 million.

Source: Shutterstock

Although quantum computing continues to be a relatively young industry, IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) Has produced the sixth generation of quantum computers. The company has produced those six quantum computers since its inception in 2015. The company now believes that it is on a path that will lead to commercially scalable operations.

The company continues to concentrate on its trapped ion technology. briefly, that technology uses ions trapped in a vacuum chamber in which lasers are used to manipulate the state of the ions. This allows the ions to enter a quantum state, performing calculations quicker than In classical computing. This advantage makes IONQ one of those quantum computing stocks to consider.

IonQ benefits from substantial demand. The company initially aimed to achieve 100 million in cumulative bookings within the first 3 years of commercialization. CEO Peter Chapman reported that the company is on track to achieve that goal by the end of 2023. The company sold two such systems to the US Air Force research lab during the third quarter for $25.5 million.

However, the company could only recognize $6.1 million in revenue during the period due to the accounting for said bookings. That said, revenues increased by $122% in the third quarter.

Source: Asif Islam / Shutterstock.com

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) And most other Silicon Valley firms are also engaged in quantum computing development. Most of the major Tech firms continue to be strong Investments, and MSFT stock is no exception.

The company is engaged in quantum computing research, which shouldnt surprise anyone. The company is actively seeking employees for multiple roles within quantum computing research. Microsoft intends to create a scalable quantum computing system.

I know very little about this particular area of research, but its clear that Microsoft is focused on solving the fault tolerance problem. fault tolerance refers to the ability to prevent minor errors from spreading rapidly. In quantum computing, when a qubit erroneously takes on the value of one or zero, that can lead to a situation that results in an uncorrectable error.

There is little evidence that Microsoft is ahead of any of the other Silicon Valley firms in this regard. However, the company remains strong overall and will remain an excellent investment.

On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Alex Sirois is a freelance contributor to InvestorPlace whose personal stock investing style is focused on long-term, buy-and-hold, wealth-building stock picks. Having worked in several industries from e-commerce to translation to education and utilizing his MBA from George Washington University, he brings a diverse set of skills through which he filters his writing.

See the original post:
The 3 Best Quantum Computing Stocks to Buy in December - InvestorPlace

Q-day (the day when quantum computers will successfully actually break the internet) may be some time away yet. However, that does not mean that companies and states shouldnt hop on the qubit bandwagon now so as not to be left behind in the race for a technology that could potentially alter how we think about life, the Universe, and well everything.

Spurred on by a discourse that more and more revolves around the concept of digital sovereignty, 11 EU member states this week signed the European Declaration on Quantum Technologies.

The signatories have agreed to align, coordinate, engage, support, monitor, and all those other international collaboration verbs, on various parts of the budding quantum technology ecosystem. They include France, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Finland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Malta, Estonia, and Spain. However, the coalition is still missing some quantum frontrunners, such as the Netherlands, Ireland, and Germany, who reportedly opted out due to the short time frame.

Quantum computing, simulation, communication, and sensing and metrology, are all emerging fields of global strategic importance that will bring about a change of paradigm in technological capacities, the declaration begins.

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It further states that the blocs innovators and industry have not yet sufficiently mobilised to take full advantage of this potential as much as in other regions of the world. As such, it stresses the importance of building domestic R&D capacities for quantum technologies, as well as producing devices and systems based on them.

In addition, it needs to invest in the whole quantum stack from hardware to software and applications and standards, so as to safeguard strategic assets, interests, autonomy, and security.

The ultimate aim is to create a globally competitive ecosystem that can support a wide range of scientific and industrial applications, identify the industrial sectors where quantum technologies will have high economic and societal impact, and foster quantum innovation in small and large companies alike, from promising startups and scaleups to major industrial players in short, to become the quantum valley of the world, the declaration reads.

Thierry Breton, whose time as Commissioner for the Internal Market has been marked by a bigtech regulation crusade, has declared quantum one of his favourite subjects. We can expect to see even more of a push towards greater collaboration across the bloc, should he land the top job of Commission President next year.

Potentially, Breton could get more member states on board to coordinate on a more detailed bloc-wide quantum strategy. With quantum engineering talent notoriously difficult to come by, this could indeed be key to keeping Europe from getting left behind in yet another key technology race.

Original post:
EU declares aim to become 'quantum valley' of the world - TNW

Few markets as small as the quantum information sciences market generate as much lively discussion. Hyperion Research pegged the worldwide quantum market at $848 million for 2023 and expects it to reach ~$1.5 billion in 2026, according to its annual quantum computing (QC) market update presented at the Q2B Silicon Valley conference held in Santa Clara this week.

Bob Sorensen, Hyperion Researchs chief quantum analyst who presented the market update, told HPCwire, I think that a positive, if not robust, market projection is justified.The QC ecosystem is becoming more sophisticated and granular with increased opportunities from QC processor suppliers, targeted classical control system vendors, QC systems integrators, software orchestration firms, and a growing base of sector-specific QC applications developers. All that adds up to a more finely-tuned QC solution well suited to the particular requirements for any potential QC end user, making quantum computing a more attractive compute option going forward.

It is sobering that there are so many uncertainties remaining in QC writ large, ranging from figuring out what will be the quantum transistor (e.g. preferred qubit modality), to implementing needed error correction and scaling up system size, and ultimately building a library of quantum algorithms and applications to fulfill quantum computings tantalizing promise.

Whats not uncertain is the global race among quantum believers, including governments, companies, and academia all chasing the goal. For example, the U.S. is expected to reauthorize the National Quantum Initiative Act for a second five years sometime this month. Consider the major international organizations that assisted Hyperion in conducting its most recent QC market survey:

Having missed out on the semiconductor revolution the underpinning of the modern electronics industry many regions (small and large) are jumping in so as not to miss the quantum revolution. For the moment, the quantum computing ecosystem retains its roughly bi-modal nature, with a few giants and very many smaller companies jostling for sway.

As shown below, the make-up of Hyperion survey is a broad reflection on the QC market. Twenty-four respondent companies had total (not just quantum) revenues of more than $10 billion and 39 had less than $15 million. Only two companies reported more than $50 million in quantum revenue. The long (irregular) tail of 66 companies with under $1 million is more broadly representative of the aspiring QC market.

A relative newcomer to the Hyperion outlook is a more bullish attitude towards deployment of on-premise quantum systems. Both IBM and D-Wave have deployed their systems at user facilities in the past, but no others. Just this year, both QuEra (neutral atom-based qubits) and IonQ (trapped ion qubits) have announced plans to offer on-premise systems, and HPCwire has talked with at least one quantum industry veteran whos planning a quantum integrator business model to assist in deploying and integrating quantum systems into datacenters.

Sorensen said, The positive future of QC installations on-premises is clear, at least to me.Despite many of the current advantages to QC access via cloud (pay as you go options, the ability to switch qubit modalities and vendors easily, andthe relatively low capex requirements during the exploratory phase) there will be an increasing interest by QC end users firms that will have any number of reasons to use an on-prem QC, including the need to protect proprietary information, speed tightly integrated hybrid quantum/classical algorithms, ensure24/7 access to a specific machine, and likely in cases where QC usage is high, secure a lower costset-up than a cloud access alternative.

In addition, many HPC sites are and will be looking to bolster in-house QC expertise and having a system on site offers more opportunity to do that versus a cloud-based option. That said, issues to be ironed out include buy versus lease, especially at a time when hardware advances are happening quickly, decisions about which quantum modality, architecture, and vendor to commit to, and the ability to effectively integrate an on-premises QCinto an existing classical HPC ecosystem, he said.

In keeping with past studies, the top targeted sectors remain steady, although the FS sector dropped from the top spot. Prospective QC end-user attitudes about demand drivers are interesting in that they reflect, for example, the growing recognition that the traditional HPC hardware paradigm is stuck. All netted out, QC user budget expectations are also up.

On balance, Sorensens view of QC prospects is positive.

The QC sector currently is marked by a wide range of innovation with many questions about which quantum hardware and software will eventually reign supreme, he said.However, a sure sign of viable technology, especially one that could drastically redefine something as far reachingand entrenched as the classical IT sector, is that exploration is taking place across the academic, government, and the vast array of commercial entities.

All this does is ensure that every considered quantum option will have its opportunity to shine, but only if it can prove its merits. There will be a range of companies that enter the market, with some departing, some being consolidated, or some pivoting to new opportunities. But as long as the overall scope of innovation stayson an upward trajectory, future prospects for the QC sector are good.

A new consideration is the emergence of LLMs and concern regarding what impact it will have on efforts and funds flowing into the quantum ecosystem. At the moment, the quantum community doesnt seem overly worried. It should also be noted that there are many efforts to harness LLMs as education tools for quantum computing as well as as coding aids to enable developers to write code for quantum computers without having to master quantum specific tools. Jay Gambetta, VP IBM Quantum, told HPCwire recently, We [think] the full power of using quantum computing will be powered by generative AI to simplify the developer experience.

As with all things quantum computing, a measure of caution is smart Hyperion, for example, couched its outlook as estimates rather than firm forecasts. There are still a lot moving pieces in the gradually coalescing quantum landscape puzzle.

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Quantum Market, Though Small, will Grow 22% and Hit $1.5B in 2026 - HPCwire

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One of IBMs latest quantum processor has improved the reliability of its qubits.Credit: Ryan Lavine for IBM

IBM has unveiled the first quantum computer with 1,121 superconducting qubits (qubits are the quantum equivalent of digital bits in a classical computer). Quantum computers could outperform classical computers in certain areas by exploiting phenomena such as entanglement and superposition. However, these quantum states are notoriously fickle and prone to error, so simply having more qubits does not necessarily make a system better. IBM says it will now focus on more error-resistant systems, rather than larger ones.

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Help this newsletter to flourish by sending your feedback to briefing@nature.com.

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Katrina Krmer, associate editor, Nature Briefing

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