Quantum Computing Breakthrough? Microsoft Reportedly Hits First Milestone in Supercomputer Creation

A Microsoft Quantum team reportedly hit a milestone that brought them a step forward in creating a practical and reliable supercomputer.

Quantum Computers

According to Phys, computer engineers and physicists have been working on creating a useful and reliable quantum computer. Error margins, however, have hampered such efforts.

The Independent adds that quantum computers may be significantly more powerful than today's top supercomputers. However, these devices have failed so far when it comes to the completion of practical activities.

Now, new efforts exerted by the Microsoft team show that the development of quantum computers could follow a path similar to that of conventional computer units. Their efforts were laid out in the Physical Review B journal.

Microsoft's Milestone in Quantum Supercomputer Development

Initially, new quantum computing concepts followed hardware advancements that have allowed present-day machines to persist. These have also suggested that, though present approaches utilized for representing logical qubits have been proven useful as devices for learning, none of these have been seen to be scalable. The Microsoft team now suggests that the new approach should foster scalability.

The team has now reported that they were able to develop a novel method of representing logical qubits that has hardware stability. Phys reports that the device is reportedly capable of inducing a matter phase marked by fermion types with Majorana zero modes.

The scientists also report that the devices have exhibited significantly low disorder to pass the protocol for the topological gap. This proves the viability of the technology. They think such efforts are the first milestone toward creating a quantum supercomputer.

Microsoft has also relayed that it has devised a new way to assess a quantum supercomputer's performance: through reliable quantum operations per second (rQOPS). They think that for a device to pass as a quantum supercomputer, the rQOPs must reach at least a million. If machines could go as far as a billion rQOPS, this would prove that the device is truly useful.

Per TechCrunch, Microsoft has also unveiled its roadmap for constructing its quantum supercomputer. This follows several hundred million dollars invested and many years of research dedicated to the technology. To pull off such a feat, they will use topological qubits that in-house researchers have worked on for a couple of years.

Krysta Svore, Microsoft's vice president of advanced quantum development, told TechCrunch that Microsoft thinks that it may take less than a decade for them to develop a quantum supercomputer with qubits that could perform one million rQOPS. Svore explains that they feel about their roadmap in terms of years, not decades.

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