SILICON VALLEY — Traditional big tech companies that lost momentum during Nvidia's dominance are redrawing the competitive map, betting that quantum computing will reach commercial use within three years. They appear to be closing in on solutions to error correction and cryogenic cooling, the biggest obstacles to commercializing the technology.
IBM researchers have unveiled a method called spacetime probabilistic error cancellation, which combines quantum error detection with error mitigation, and verified its performance on IBM Aachen, an actual superconducting quantum processor, according to The Quantum Insider on the 20th.
One of the biggest weaknesses of quantum computers is that errors occur frequently during calculations because of the nature of quantum states. Until now, mitigation techniques that minimize errors and detection-and-correction techniques that screen them out entirely have been developed separately. IBM says combining the two approaches can screen out up to 65% of errors in advance.
Intel is likewise focusing on commercialization through error minimization. "Right now I'm focused on error correction and applications. I also think about who is going to pay for it," Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan said in a keynote address at DotConf26 in Denver, Colorado, on the 15th. The remarks pointed to a stage of trial and error before full-scale use, rather than immediate realization of quantum computing.
The companies expect central processing units and graphics processing units, the current backbone of the artificial intelligence industry, to complement quantum systems and push past the limits of computing speed.
"GPUs, CPUs and quantum are all forms of computing, so they will run together in some application areas and make quantum computing more efficient to use," Tan said. He meant that quantum computers will become one of the computing industry's three main processor chips alongside GPUs and CPUs, ushering in a quantum computing era in which GPUs and CPUs support quantum chips.
Work on cryogenic solutions and chip-level development is also continuing. Intel Labs has developed Tunnel Falls, a small computing device known as a silicon spin qubit that operates at higher temperatures, and is conducting research with academia. In December 2020, the company unveiled Horse Ridge II, a second-generation chip that controls quantum computers in cryogenic environments.
IBM last month also announced a new modular architecture for building cryogenic systems. Previously, multiple processors were connected inside a cylindrical cryogenic vessel, but the modular approach houses a single quantum chip and links it to adjacent cells. Removing unnecessary wiring and eliminating noise can improve stability. It is a core technology for realizing IBM's next-generation quantum computer, slated for release in 2029.
Microsoft in June unveiled Majorana 2, a chip for quantum computers, and said it would commercialize a quantum computer in 2029. Peter DeSantis, who oversees AI at Amazon, said in a CNBC interview that the first small quantum computers of commercial value would emerge within five to seven years.
