Key Points
- IBM has built a new experimental quantum computing chip called “Loon.”
- The chip represents a key milestone in IBM’s effort to create useful quantum computers.
- The new chip design is based on a novel error-correction method adapted from cellphone technology.
- IBM also announced another chip, “Nighthawk,” which it believes will show “quantum advantage” by the end of next year.
IBM announced on Wednesday that it has built a new experimental quantum computing chip called “Loon.” The company says this new chip proves it has reached a key milestone on its path to creating useful quantum computers before the end of the decade.
Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that would take today’s supercomputers thousands of years. However, because they operate according to the strange rules of quantum mechanics, these computers are highly prone to errors. Correcting these errors is the main focus for tech giants like Google, Amazon, and IBM, who are all racing to build the first practical quantum computer.
In 2021, IBM proposed a new approach to error correction: adapt an algorithm used to improve cellphone signals and run it on a mix of quantum and classical computer chips. The downside to this idea is that it makes the quantum chips much harder to build.
“It’s very, very clever,” said Mark Horvath, an analyst at the research firm Gartner. “Now, they’re actually putting it in chips, so that’s super exciting.”
Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research, said the key to making the new chip was using the advanced chipmaking tools at the Albany NanoTech Complex in New York.
While the Loon chip is still in its early stages, IBM also announced another chip, “Nighthawk,” which will be available by the end of this year. IBM believes that by the end of next year, Nighthawk could beat classical computers on certain tasks. The company is working with a group of startups and researchers to share its code openly so that others can test these claims.
“We’re confident there’ll be many examples of quantum advantage,” Gambetta said. “But let’s take it out of headlines and papers and actually make a community where you submit your code, and the community tests things.”
