Microsoft Says It Will Have A Useful Quantum Computer In Three Years - Forbes
Majorana 2John Brecher / MicrosoftMicrosoft releases its second-generation quantum chip. Ultrasound could replace pacemakers. And why you shouldn’t skip breakfast. All that and more in this week’s Prototype. To get it in your inbox, sign up here.Microsoft is doubling down on its quantum computing plans. In February of last year, it released its new class of quantum chip, Majorana 1. This week, it introduced a new version, Majorana 2, and the company is now rethinking its timeline for when it will be able to build a useful quantum computer. “We used to talk about 2033 as a timeline for a scalable machine,” Zulfi Alam, Microsoft’s VP for quantum, told a press briefing this week. “And we are delighted to say right now that we are targeting 2029.”Key to this aggressive change in timeline is the company’s claim that the quantum bits–aka qubits–stay together for an average of 20 seconds, about 1,000 times longer than the first-generation chip. This is one important metric for making quantum computing practical, because qubits are very fragile, susceptible to disruption. This introduces errors to calculations, which then take time to correct. There are many different hardware paths to quantum computation, each with their own advantages and tradeoffs. Microsoft’s approach is what’s called a topological qubit, which offers hardware-based protection against the qubits’ natural fragility. This is a newer approach, so other technologies are ahead of Microsoft for now. (And some researchers in the industry have questioned the company’s claims, because it doesn’t publish its experiments to be replicated, relying instead on DARPA to validate them in order to protect its trade secrets.)But the technology company is convinced it’s on the right path to make true quantum computing a reality. “This is effectively 1,000 times better than our previous generation,” Alam said. “So it’s not a step function. It’s literally a phase change.”Discovery of the Week: Surgery-Free PacemakersgettySi
