IBM Unveils Breakthrough 127-Qubit Quantum Processor
November 16, 2021 at 11:00 am
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IBM announced its new 127-quantum bit (qubit) 'Eagle' processor at the IBM Quantum Summit 2021, its annual event to showcase milestones in quantum hardware, software, and the growth of the quantum ecosystem. The 'Eagle' processor is a breakthrough in tapping into the massive computing potential of devices based on quantum physics. It heralds the point in hardware development where quantum circuits cannot be reliably simulated exactly on a classical computer. The company also previewed plans for IBM Quantum System Two, the next generation of quantum systems. 127-qubit Eagle processor: 'Eagle' is IBM's first quantum processor developed and deployed to contain more than 100 operational and connected qubits. It follows IBM's 65-qubit 'Hummingbird' processor unveiled in 2020 and the 27-qubit 'Falcon' processor unveiled in 2019. To achieve this breakthrough, IBM researchers built on innovations pioneered within its existing quantum processors, such as a qubit arrangement design to reduce errors and an architecture to reduce the number of necessary components. The new techniques leveraged within Eagle place control wiring on multiple physical levels within the processor while keeping the qubits on a single layer, which enables a significant increase in qubits. The increased qubit count will allow users to explore problems at a new level of complexity when undertaking experiments and running applications, such as optimizing machine learning or modeling new molecules and materials for use in areas spanning from the energy industry to the drug discovery process. 'Eagle' is the first IBM quantum processor whose scale makes it impossible for a classical computer to reliably simulate. In fact, the number of classical bits necessary to represent a state on the 127-qubit processor exceeds the total number of atoms in the more than 7.5 billion people alive.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is one of the world's leading computer services companies. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- cognitive solutions and transaction processing software development (41.4%);
- IT services (31.6%): consulting (management of logistic chains, financial performance, CRM, human resources, etc.), application management, systems integration, cloud computing, hosting, technical support services, etc.;
- sale of IT infrastructure (25.3%): hybrid IT infrastructure solutions, microcomputers, servers, peripheral devices, networks, data storage equipment, etc.;
- financing of computer equipment (1%);
- other (0.7%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: the United States (41.5%), Americas (9.8%), Europe/Middle East/Africa (29.7%), Japan (9%) and Asia/Pacific (10%).