Atom Computing Is the First To Announce a 1,000+ Qubit Quantum Computer (arstechnica.com) 20
John Timmer reports via Ars Technica: Today, a startup called Atom Computing announced that it has been doing internal testing of a 1,180 qubit quantum computer and will be making it available to customers next year. The system represents a major step forward for the company, which had only built one prior system based on neutral atom qubits -- a system that operated using only 100 qubits. The error rate for individual qubit operations is high enough that it won't be possible to run an algorithm that relies on the full qubit count without it failing due to an error. But it does back up the company's claims that its technology can scale rapidly and provides a testbed for work on quantum error correction. And, for smaller algorithms, the company says it'll simply run multiple instances in parallel to boost the chance of returning the right answer. [...]
Atom Computing is now using the system internally and plans to open it up for public use next year. The system has moved from a 10x10 grid to a 35x35 grid, bringing the potential sites for atoms up to 1,225. So far, testing has taken place with up to 1,180 atoms present, making it the largest machine that anyone has publicly acknowledged (at least in terms of qubit count). The qubits are housed in a 12x5 foot box that contains the lasers and optics, along with the vacuum system and a bit of unused space -- Atom CEO Rob Hayes quipped that "there's a lot of air inside that box." It does not, however, contain the computer hardware that controls the system and its operations. The grid of atoms it's used to create, by contrast, is only about 100 microns per side, so it won't strain the hardware to keep increasing the qubit count.
Atom Computing is now using the system internally and plans to open it up for public use next year. The system has moved from a 10x10 grid to a 35x35 grid, bringing the potential sites for atoms up to 1,225. So far, testing has taken place with up to 1,180 atoms present, making it the largest machine that anyone has publicly acknowledged (at least in terms of qubit count). The qubits are housed in a 12x5 foot box that contains the lasers and optics, along with the vacuum system and a bit of unused space -- Atom CEO Rob Hayes quipped that "there's a lot of air inside that box." It does not, however, contain the computer hardware that controls the system and its operations. The grid of atoms it's used to create, by contrast, is only about 100 microns per side, so it won't strain the hardware to keep increasing the qubit count.
Re: (Score:3)
Articles that talk about quantum computers which only list number of physical qubits should not be posted until information on logical qubits are available. This is necessary because otherwise the numbers are completely meaningless.
Also the entanglement width and the iteration depth. 1000 bits is meaningless.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh noes! My ugly monkeys will be deblockchained! (Score:2)
There goes my investment in ugly monkey pictures because with more than 200 qubits, all my ugly monkeys will be cryptomagically be deblockchained from someone elses computer and my investment will be worthless!
But Bitcoins will be first to fall so that gives me some ease of mind for now.
The killer app for a quantum computer is... (Score:2)
... playing around with the quantum computer to try to figure out what the killer app for a quantum computer is.
Re: (Score:2)
Looking to solve problems that don't exist making a buck along the way instead of solving problems that exist but for which nobody seems interested to give a dime to solve. It's not like the abundance of the latter wasn't obvious already.
Re: (Score:3)
Ah, then it shall go into the garage next to my 3D Printer and my Laser Engraver.
Bill Cosby sketch of the future (Score:2)
"What's that in your server room, Noah?"
(Mimes looking at something very big)
"What's a quantum computer?"
(Long pause...)
"What's a qbit?"
Re: (Score:2)
What do Bill Cosby and Heaven's Gate have in common?
DO NOT EAT THE PUDDING
Don't believe the hype (Score:2)
Enough qubits (Score:2)
Is this enough qubits to decode an AES block and figure out what key values produce ASCII output characters yet?
Wake me when I can factor 700+-bit numbers (Score:2)
Otherwise it's all just hype.
They should rename the company... (Score:2)
Entanglement and superposition times? (Score:2)
ill pass (Score:2)
I had a computer with an atom processor in it once, it was tiny, the screen sucked, came with this god aweful distro of linux and took 15 min to boot
Im good