Forty years after IBM first delved into quantum computing, the company is finally poised to expand this technology beyond the laboratory and into supercomputers. In 2020, the American corporation released a quantum roadmap, including the 127-qubit Eagle processor utilizing quantum schemes and the Qiskit Runtime API.
Now, IBM plans to launch a system with 4000 qubits by 2025. Before embarking on creating the largest quantum computer to date, IBM intends to release its 433-qubit Osprey chip by the end of 2022 and move Qiskit Runtime to the cloud in 2023, as reported by Engadget.
Following this, the Condor quantum chip will be introduced, positioned by IBM as the “world’s first universal 1000-qubit quantum processor.” This 4-fold increase in quantum volume (the number of qubits in the processor) will allow users to implement longer quantum circuits, thereby increasing processing speed, measured in CLOPS (circuit-level operations per second), from a maximum of 2,900 operations per second to over 10,000.
To achieve this, IBM plans to first obtain sets of multiple processors to interconnect with each other both in parallel and sequentially. This will help develop more efficient error-correction schemes and improve coordination between processors, which are essential components of quantum computers.
Subsequently, IBM will design and deploy microchip-level connectors that will tightly integrate multiple microchips with each other to efficiently form a unified and larger processor. Then, quantum communication channels will be built to connect these larger multi-processors together. Eventually, larger clusters will be formed until they constitute a functional modular computing platform with 4000 qubits.
The company has also released a set of ready-made primitive programs “that allow developers to easily access the results of quantum computations without requiring a deep understanding of hardware.” IBM intends to expand this program set in 2023, enabling developers to run them on parallel quantum processors.
The problem to be solved will be divided into smaller quantum and classical programs, the processing of which will proceed either in parallel or sequentially (depending on efficiency). Then, orchestration will connect the various data streams into a coordinated result accessible to classical computers.
IBM calls its proprietary infrastructure “Quantum Serverless Stitching” and will deploy it in the main stack of quantum software in 2023.
IBM is entering the era of quantum-oriented supercomputers, where quantum resources – QPUs – will be combined with CPUs and GPUs into a computational structure. Together, these hardware and software systems will become IBM Quantum System Two, with the first prototype planned for operation in 2024.