Atom Computing just announced that it has successfully tested its prototype quantum computer with 1,180 qubits. This puts the company several weeks ahead of an expected announcement from IBM and makes it the first company to exceed the 1,000 qubits milestone.
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The race for a quantum computer has just reached a new stage. While most companies working on it are limited to a few hundred qubits at most, Atom Computing would be the first company to break the 1,000-qubit barrier. The company just announced a prototype with 1,180 qubits, scheduled to launch next year.
Qubits are the equivalent of binary bits in classical computers. Unlike bits, which have the value of either 0 or 1, qubits can also have both values at the same time. It is this peculiarity that allows quantum computers to solve certain problems much faster than a classical computer. The most powerful quantum computer to date is IBM’s Osprey with “only” 433 qubits.
Ytterbium atoms manipulated with lasers
Unlike other companies that work with ions, Atom Computing uses neutral ytterbium atoms that are organized into a matrix and manipulated using lasers. The company had already announced that it had managed to achieve a coherence time of its qubits of 40 seconds, as well as the ability to measure the state of certain qubits during calculations and thus detect certain errors without disturbing the other qubits.
The company beat IBM, which was due to unveil its Condor quantum processor with 1,121 qubits in the coming weeks. Atom Computing has announced that it will put its quantum computer into the service of companies, universities and administrations from 2024.