With its new 433-qubit Osprey processor, IBM has unveiled the world’s largest quantum computer. More than three times more powerful than its predecessor, Eagle, which had 127 qubits, Osprey is the world’s largest quantum computer. This quantum computer was expected to be unveiled in 2022 and has been achieved, showing IBM’s efforts to reach the 4000-qubit mark by the end of 2025.
IBM is one of the major pioneers in quantum computing. In addition to increased processing power, Osprey is also introducing improvements to the cabling system. “We are working with a new high-density signal transmission system with flexible cabling to increase cabling density by 70 percent and reduce the price per wire by five times,” IBM said.
The company also guarantees that the new processor will have higher accuracy in error correction, which is one of the problems in quantum computing. It will now be possible to configure the suppression mechanism by adjusting the optimization level of the quantum computer. If the Eagle’s quantum 127-qubit processor was already considered revolutionary, the advances made with its successor are even more impressive.
IBM prepares 4,000-qubit quantum supercomputer for 2025
Quantum computing exploits the fundamental nature of matter at the subatomic level to achieve far greater computing power than conventional computers. With Osprey’s announcement at IBM’s Quantum Summit 2022, the company is taking the next step toward its goal of building a quantum computer with 4,000 qubits by 2025.
By 2023, IBM plans to introduce to the world the Condor processor with 1,121 quantum bits, which has nearly 10 times the computing power of Eagle. Also in 2023, IBM plans to introduce the Heron processor with 133 qubits of computing power. The key differentiator of Heron will be that its control hardware will enable communication between two different processors.
The communication between the processors reaches an incredible 4000 qubits
Since the creation of Heron, IBM will produce several processors until it reaches the quantum supercomputer of more than 4,000 qubits. According to the company’s schedule, the Crossbill with 408 qubits, which consists of the combination of three chips, and the Flamingo with 462 qubits of processing capacity will be unveiled in 2024.
Based on the communication system created in Heron, IBM plans to build the 4,000-qubit processor from the communication of three different processors. If the company succeeds with its plans, quantum computing could be revolutionized by 2025.