IBM claims to have taken a big step towards a practical quantum calculation. On Monday, the company launched an eagle, quantum quitum 127 processor. IBM claims it is the first processor that cannot be simulated by classical supercomputers. To understand what that means, the company said to simulate your Eagle will need more classical bits than atoms in every human being on the planet. IBM credits a breakthrough to a new design that places the processor control component at some physical level when qubit is in one layer. This is a design that the company said to enable a significant increase in computing power.
One aspect of the eagle that is not discussed at the current company is quantum volume. Installed by IBM, this is a metric that seeks to measure the performance of quantum computers by taking a holistic view of the different parts. Not only taking into account QUBIT, but also the way they interact with each other. The higher the quantum volume, the more capable of a quantum computer is dealing with difficult problems.
“Our first 127-ambit eagle processor is available as an exploration system in the IBM cloud to select members of the IBM quantum network,” Jerry Chow, Director of the IBM Hardware System Development Unit, to Engadget. “Exploration systems are initial access to our latest technology and we do not guarantee uptime or repetitive levels of performance, which is measured by quantum volume.”
Without knowing the quantum volume of the eagle processor, it is difficult to say exactly how to compare what is already out there. Last October, Honeywell claims the H1 system model has a 128 quantum volume with only 10 connected qubits. For reference, at the beginning of IBM announced 27 QUBIT systems with a leading quantum volume in the 64 industry. Obviously, the new company processor was very strong, but QUBIT did not tell the whole story here.
What is also known about Eagle is IBM not claiming quantum supremacy. According to the company, it is a step towards the historical milestone, but the processor has not been at the point where it can solve the problem that classical computers cannot. In 2019, Google triggered controversy when (short) claimed it had achieved achievements with its sycamore system. At that time, IBM called company claims “cannot be maintained” based on the fact that Google built a computer to complete a certain equation.
