IBM develops prototype of quantum processor with 50 qubits

IBM has announced that it has built a prototype quantum processor with 50 qubits. The company wants to offer this in the next generation of its IBM Q systems. In addition, it is expanding its quantum systems that are accessible via the Internet.

According to IBM, the new 50qubit system has an increased coherence time of 90 microseconds, while previous systems achieved an average of 50 microseconds. This time indicates how long the quantum state of particles can remain in superposition. At the same time, the company is achieving 20 qubits with newly developed quantum processors. Customers will be able to approach these via the internet from the end of this year. IBM plans to make further upgrades in the course of 2018.

These should consist of, among other things, increasing the quality of the qubits, improving the interconnection and reducing the number of errors. In a quantum processor, the quantum state of particles is superimposed, so that they can partly be a 1 and a 0. represent. With a limited number of algorithms, huge speed gains can be achieved with this, such as when searching in huge databases and in cryptography. This year, scientists called for better encryption.

In May of 2016, IBM made the first quantum system available via the internet, which at the time had a processor with 5 qubits. A year later, the American company made a system with 16 qubits accessible. Scientists and other users are said to have run 1.7 million experiments on those systems. In March of this year, IBM announced its Q program, in which it aims to build a commercial quantum computer. An SDK is available under the name QISKit.

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