The IBM Q System One is capable of delivering 20-qubits and has a modular design allowing for upgradability
At the CES 2019 keynote, IBM revealed the IBM Q System One, a 20-Qubit quantum computer has been designed for scientific and commercial use outside the research laboratories to which quantum computers had been confined to all these years. IBM also announced that it would open its first IBM Q Quantum Computation Centre for commercial clients in Poughkeepsie, New York sometime in 2019.
IBM Q System One
The IBM Q System One will combine classical and quantum computing elements into a single integrated architecture that is modular and designed for stability, reliability and continuous commercial use. The Q System One is designed to be stable and with the ability to auto calibrate in order to provide repeatable and predictable high-quality qubits. It reportedly delivers a continuous cold and isolated quantum environment which allows it to control a large number of qubits.
A 20-qubits system is quite limited for a wide variety of real world applications. The IBM Q System One would allow for modeling some physics and chemical systems. Google’s Bristlecone, a 72-qubits quantum processor, is only faster than conventional computers with some types of equations. IBM itself claimed that it ‘Quantum Supremacy’ with its 50-qubits system that was unveiled last year at CES. However, that was not a commercial system. So for proper applications, we’d require a 100-200-qubits commercial quantum computer and that seems a few years away. Nevertheless, given that IBM is the first to have a commercial quantum computer solution, it certainly has a significant lead over the competition.
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Mithun Mohandas
Mithun Mohandas is an Indian technology journalist with 10 years of experience covering consumer technology. He is currently employed at Digit in the capacity of a Managing Editor. Mithun has a background in Computer Engineering and was an active member of the IEEE during his college days. He has a penchant for digging deep into unravelling what makes a device tick. If there's a transistor in it, Mithun's probably going to rip it apart till he finds it. At Digit, he covers processors, graphics cards, storage media, displays and networking devices aside from anything developer related. As an avid PC gamer, he prefers RTS and FPS titles, and can be quite competitive in a race to the finish line. He only gets consoles for the exclusives. He can be seen playing Valorant, World of Tanks, HITMAN and the occasional Age of Empires or being the voice behind hundreds of Digit videos. View Full Profile
