QuEra Computing took a great leap towards democratizing access to quantum technology. In 2020, they delivered a quantum machine prepared for error correction to Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). This milestone is a big step toward making quantum computers more practical and usable. These machines have often struggled with issues of noise and inaccuracy. QuEra plans to roll out this revolutionary new machine by 2026. We’re excited to see this innovation usher in a new era in quantum computing for customers around the world.
The delivered machine is made up of around 1,000 qubits, the basic units of quantum information. This progress is the second stage of technical advancement in quantum computing. It’s focused on developing miniaturized devices to efficiently sense and heal qubit errors. This achievement overcomes the infamous obstacles that have made today’s quantum systems noisy and error prone.
Recent joint experiments between QuEra, Harvard, MIT and the University of Maryland culminated in a groundbreaking discovery. Quantum operations implemented with logical qubits have orders of magnitude better performance than those executed with bare physical qubits. This groundbreaking realization highlights the promise for greater fidelity quantum calculations just around the corner.
The Future of Quantum Machines
QuEra is preparing for commercial release of its quantum machine to the global market in 2026. This new paradigm has generated incredible enthusiasm within the tech world! Microsoft’s vice president of quantum Srinivas Prasad Sugasani was thrilled at the prospects for the year ahead.
“We feel very excited about the year 2026, because lots of work that happened over the last so many years is coming to fruition now,” – Srinivas Prasad Sugasani
This third and final tier of quantum-computing advancement is pushing us toward large-scale versions of error-corrected machines. These far-future systems might have 100s of thousands, or even millions, of qubits. They will need to keep a very high fidelity and execute millions of them at the same time. Industry insiders urge that getting to those large-scale systems isn’t just a matter of doing error correction first.
Jerry Chow, director of quantum systems at IBM Quantum, explained the implications of this dilemma.
“I think that kind of level framing…is a very physics-device-oriented view of the world, and we should be looking at it more from a computational view of the world, which is, what can you actually use these circuits for and enable?” – Jerry Chow
The Role of Neutral Atoms
One recent trend in the industry is the use of neutral atoms for building qubits. Companies like Atom Computing are working quickly to create these level-two quantum computers with this approach. During the Quantum Tech Conference, Justin Ging, chief product officer at Atom Computing emphasized the benefits of using neutral atoms.
“If there’s one word, it’s scalability. That’s the key benefit of neutral atoms,” – Justin Ging
QuERA’s recent delivery on this front illustrates exactly how neutral atoms can be used to build strongly interacting qubits with rich functionality. Yet Yuval Boger, the new CEO of Atom Computing, pointed to a key benefit as the most significant advantage. He explained that with neutral atoms, there are incredible speed advantages compared to classical approaches.
“Because of the unique capabilities of neutral atoms, we have shown that we can create a 50x or 100x speedup over what previously was thought,” – Yuval Boger
There’s a lot more affect than just clock speed with this technology. It impacts the speed to getting actionable insights. One thing Boger was particularly proud of was when comparing “time to solution” across different systems, neutral atoms show performance on-par with superconducting qubits.
“We think that when you compare what some people call time to solution, not just clock speed but how long it would take you to get to that useful result…that neutral atoms today are comparable to superconducting qubits,” – Yuval Boger
Challenges Ahead
Noisy Quantum Computers Current quantum computers are still thought of as Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers, limiting their practical applications. Experts acknowledge that while significant progress has been made, there is still a considerable amount of work required to realize fully functional quantum machines.
QuEra’s strides in error correction are an optimistic example of heading down the right path in tackling these obstacles. From A.I to quantum computing, more companies than ever are deeply investing in R&D. We look forward to seeing this investment lead to breakthroughs that enhance the stability and utility of quantum systems.
