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https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-unveils-new-chip-in-push-to-realize-quantum-computings-promise-11667854695

CIO JOURNAL

IBM Unveils New Chip in Push to Realize

Quantum Computing’s Promise
‘We’re getting closer and closer,’ said Director of IBM Research Dario Gil

An IBM Quantum System One at the company’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in
Yorktown Heights, N.Y. The machine is encased in the same type of glass used to protect
the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. To access some computers, employees are screened with a
retinal scan before entering the room.
PHOTO: ISABELLE BOUSQUETTE / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Isabelle Bousquette
Nov. 9, 2022 9�00 am ET

International Business Machines Corp. announced Wednesday that it has created

a more powerful quantum computing chip, the next step in its yearslong effort to
build quantum machines capable of delivering business value to companies.

The 433-qubit Osprey chip, unveiled at IBM’s annual Quantum Summit in New
York, has more than three times as many qubits as the 127-qubit Eagle chip it
introduced last year. 

But IBM is aiming to steadily build that computing power in the years ahead. The
company said it plans to introduce a more than 4,000-qubit system in 2025, which
would be able to solve some problems faster or more accurately than classical
computers, as well as provide exact solutions to problems the best of today’s
computers can only estimate, achieving a milestone known as “quantum
advantage.” 

Dario Gil, senior vice president at IBM

and director of IBM Research, said the
company would continue scaling up from there, and ultimately quantum systems
will contain millions of qubits.

“We’re getting closer and closer,” said Dr. Gil. “This is another step. Maybe there’s
a couple more steps, but it’s getting closer.”

Today’s computers use binary digits, or bits, which can either be zeros or ones.
Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which represent and store
information in a quantum state that is a complex mix of zero and one. Machines
capable of supporting this quantum state have the potential to sort through vast
numbers of possibilities in nearly real time.

The types of problems quantum computers could one day tackle include
simulating the behavior of natural materials in chemistry, and even breaking the
public-key cryptography used to secure the internet, said Dr. Gil.

On Wednesday, IBM also announced a partnership with Vodafone Group PLC to

investigate ways of using classical computing to defend against future quantum-
enabled threats to encryption, and unveiled new software to help mitigate errors
in quantum systems. 

IBM isn’t the only company making big bets here. Microsoft Corp. , Alphabet Inc.’s
Google, D-Wave Systems Inc. and others, as well as a generation of startups are all
pushing forward in the area. 

As these companies take varied approaches to building quantum machines, it is

possible some types of computers might end up being better-suited to solving
certain problems than others, according to Heather West, research manager and
quantum-computing research lead at International Data Corp. 

D-Wave says it has a machine of more than 5,000 qubits, known as an annealing
quantum computer. An annealer targets specific problems, typically related to
optimization, analysts said. 

IBM is pursuing a quantum computer capable of handling many different tasks,

known as a quantum gate computer. Scaling up the number of qubits in these
computers is more difficult than in annealers since qubits function differently in
each machine, analysts said. 

Theoretically, there is no reason you couldn’t put 1,000 qubits on a single chip
today, said Dr. Gil. The difficulty is, the more qubits you have, the higher the error
rate of their results and the less time they are able to maintain their quantum
state to perform calculations.

In part, that is because qubits are delicate and easily disrupted by changes in
temperature, noise or frequency. IBM hosts their quantum systems inside
cylindrical cryogenic refrigerators, several of which sit inside the company’s
Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Some machines are
guarded in rooms that require a retinal scan for entry. One is kept behind the same
type of glass that protected the Mona Lisa from a cake-smearing climate protest
at the Louvre this year.

Jerry Chow, IBM fellow and director of infrastructure for IBM Quantum, at the Watson
Research Center.
PHOTO: ISABELLE BOUSQUETTE / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The company additionally announced it has expanded the base of clients

experimenting with its existing quantum computers to more than 210 companies.

Since 2016, IBM has been putting their quantum computers on the cloud to enable
companies, universities and individuals to experiment with the technology. IBM
currently has over 20 systems online for this purpose, it said. Jerry Chow, IBM
fellow and director of infrastructure for IBM Quantum, said the companies would
be able to start using the Osprey chip in the first quarter of next year. 

Boeing Co. said it is using IBM’s quantum computers via the cloud  to experiment
with modeling chemical reactions related to corrosion on its aircraft.

“It takes time to build up an understanding of how this can be helpful,” said
Marna Kagele, technical fellow at Boeing. 

“We felt that it was the right time to start down that path and to build our internal
capability,” she said, adding, “There’s a lot of work to be done.” 

Write to Isabelle Bousquette at isabelle.bousquette@wsj.com

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