IBM has unveiled the first quantum computer with more than 1,000 qubits — the equivalent of the digital bits in an ordinary computer. A qubit (short for quantum bit) is the basic unit of information in quantum computing and counterpart to the bit (binary digit) in classical computin
- The chip unveiled on 4 December, is called Condor. It has 1,121 superconducting qubits arranged in a honeycomb pattern.
- It follows on from its other record-setting, bird-named machines, including a 127-qubit chip in 2021 and a 433-qubit one last year.
Quantum computers
- Quantum computers promise to perform certain computations that are beyond the reach of classical computers.
- They will do so by exploiting uniquely quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition, which allow multiple qubits to exist in multiple collective states at once.
- But these quantum states are also notoriously fickle, and prone to error.
- Physicists have grown excited about an alternative error-correction scheme called quantum low-density parity check (qLDPC).
