Scientists Create the World's Most Powerful Quantum Computer

The technology company Atom Computing has developed a computer with over a thousand qubits, as reported by New Scientist.

The world's first quantum computer with more than 1,000 qubits surpasses the previous record holder, IBM Osprey, which had 433 qubits. While having more qubits doesn't necessarily guarantee better performance, many of them will be crucial for future fault-tolerant quantum computers.

In the largest quantum computers, like those from IBM and Google, superconducting wires are used for qubits, and these wires are cooled to extremely low temperatures. However, in Atom Computing's record-breaking machine with 1,180 qubits, neutral atoms held in a two-dimensional lattice by lasers are employed.

One advantage of this design is that the system is easily scalable, allowing for the addition of many qubits to the network, says Rob Hayes, CEO of Atom Computing. According to him, any future quantum computer will require at least tens of thousands of specialized qubits to work in conjunction with programmable qubits to correct errors.

The development team plans to increase the number of qubits by around 10 every few years. Quantum machines with superconducting systems and trapped ions may take a long time to achieve error correction stability, while a quantum computer based on neutral atoms can reach this point much more quickly.

The primary advantage of using neutral atoms lies in their better quantum entanglement and more stable operation. Neutral atomic qubits are better suited for quantum entanglement, where measuring the properties of one qubit allows for the detection of properties of others. Furthermore, the qubits in Atom Computing's machine remain operational for nearly a minute, unlike IBM's machine, which has a continuous runtime of around 70–80 microseconds.

Although Atom Computing has made a significant breakthrough in the field of quantum computers with numerous qubits, the company still faces challenges such as optimizing the simultaneous operation on all qubits. However, these achievements will help advance the scaling of quantum computer systems and create fault-tolerant machines.

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