Microsoft may finally make quantum computing useful

The dream of quantum computing has always been exciting: What if we could build a machine that worked at the quantum level, capable of processing complex calculations exponentially faster than computers limited by classical physics? But while IBM, Google and others have announced iterative quantum computing hardware, they still aren’t being used for any practical purpose. That may change as Microsoft and Quantinuum announced today that they have developed the most bug-free quantum computing system yet.

While classical computers and electronics rely on binary bits as their basic units of information (they can be turned on or off), quantum computers use qubits, which can exist in a superposition of two states at the same time.The problem with qubits is that they are prone to errors, which is the main reason why today’s quantum computers (called noisy mesoscale quantum computers) [NISQ] computer) for research and experimentation only.

Microsoft’s solution is to group physical qubits into virtual qubits, which allows it to apply error diagnosis and corrections without destroying them and run on Quantinuum’s hardware. The result is an error rate 800 times higher than relying on physical qubits alone. Microsoft claims it was able to run more than 14,000 experiments without any errors.

Jason Zander, executive vice president of Microsoft’s strategic mission and technology group, said that this achievement will eventually allow us to achieve “level 2 elastic” quantum computing, which is reliable enough for practical applications.

“The entire quantum ecosystem is currently on a mission to improve qubit fidelity and enable fault-tolerant quantum operations so that we can use quantum machines to solve previously intractable problems,” Zander wrote in a blog post today . “In short, we need to transition to reliable logical qubits – created by combining multiple physical qubits together to form logical qubits that prevent noise and last for long periods of time (i.e., are resilient) Computing. … …By having high-quality hardware components and breaking through the error-handling capabilities designed for this machine, we can get better results than any single component could.”

In the coming months, researchers will be able to experience Microsoft’s reliable quantum computing through Azure Quantum Elements, which will be available in a private preview. Our goal is to further advance level 3 quantum supercomputing, which will theoretically be able to solve extremely complex problems such as climate change and exotic drug research. It’s unclear how long it will take to actually get there, but for now, at least we’re taking a step toward practical quantum computing.

This article contains affiliate links; if you click on such links and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.