IBM has introduced the first commercial quantum computer of the world, or n technological breakthrough that could one day lead to that all we possessed personal computers millions of times faster than current machines we have.
Christened IBM Q System One, IBM’s supercomputer was officially unveiled this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (CES) in an airtight 2.7-meter cube made of 1.27-centimeter-thick glass – half an inch-.
What is this computer like?
The first commercial quantum computer combines both quantum and “traditional” computing. IBM Q uses theories of physics to create computing techniques far more powerful than current devices.
While the applications of quantum computing in the real world are still a long way off, the technology could be used to revolutionize fields as varied and exciting as medicine, artificial intelligence, financial markets, and internet security.
IBM’s revolutionary new computer (already a definitive product and not in testing) will be the first of its kind to be released for commercial use by companies when it is released later this year 2019.
IBM has been testing its Q System since 2016, which has been open to users and accessed by more than 100,000 researchers and scientists.
Quantum computing
Quantum computing is radically different from the way computers operate today. Modern machines work by using a binary system of electron particles to give responses composed of ones and zeros to make decisions.
However, quantum computers use quantum particles known as qubits. Unlike electrons, qubits can take both positions of one and zero at the same time, or a mixture of the two, and the particles can interact with each other in a process known to physicists as “quantum entanglement.”
This process makes the computer much more powerful than normal computers and you can reach conclusions using gigantic data sets or very complicated algorithms much faster and more efficiently.
The IBM Q System One computer is shown to us as a pile of circuit boards and cables, enclosed in a metal cylinder and seated in a kind of sealed glass cube in which the computer operates hermetically to avoid interference with the outside. . This ‘quantum safe’ has been built by designers who have protected such valuable assets as the Crown Jewels or Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
IBM’s computer is a 20-qubit machine, technically smaller than the 72-qubit quantum computer built by Google in its laboratory in Mountain View, California (USA): Bristlecone.
Can I take it home?
Clearly not. The machine needs to be in an isolated environment with temperatures of absolute zero, that is, -273 ºC, so it also requires a special installation and environment. It is the IBM Q Quantum Computation Center. This is where companies can come to use the computer.
Until now, the IBM Q had been used for experiments and trials by scientists. This launch represents its first step in making quantum computers available to customers.
“The IBM Q System One is a huge step forward in the commercialization of quantum computing,” said Arvind Krishna, director of IBM Research. “This new system is critical to expanding quantum computing beyond the walls of the research laboratory .”
We are facing a first approach, which is not bad at all.
