Microsoft’s Quantum Leap: Roadmap for supercomputer revealed

In an ambitious declaration, Microsoft revealed its progressive blueprint for the creation of its proprietary quantum supercomputer.

Based on years of groundwork and scientific research, the team at Microsoft envision to construct a supercomputer using topological qubits within a decade.

Microsoft’s quantum computer

Microsoft’s VP of advanced quantum development, Krysta Svore, said the quantum supercomputer is projected to reliably execute one million quantum operations per second.

This is a new performance metric introduced by Microsoft as the tech industry aims to transcend the current phase of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computing.

What is NISQ computing, I hear you ask?

NISQ computing explained

Think of how a traditional computer works: It uses bits of information, and this information can either be a 1 or a 0.

Now, imagine if each of these bits could be both 0 and 1 at the same time. This means the computer would be able to hold more information and perform calculations much more quickly.

This is the core concept of quantum computing. The ‘noisy’ part refers to how sensitive quantum computers are to their environments.

Something as small as a fluctuation in temperature can cause calculation errors.

So in order to reach the next level of quantum computing, we need to figure out how to create a stable system less prone to errors.

In short NISQ computing is all about perfecting this imperfect and experimental technology.

From decades to years

Now back to Microsoft’s audacious plans.

Even though researchers had initially estimated it would take decades to fully develop this technology, Svore said Microsoft plan on doing it within a few years.

According to Svore, Microsoft achieved a significant breakthrough in 2022 by demonstrating its ability to create Majorana-based qubits.

Majorana-based qubits use particles that are their own antiparticles, to store and process information – these little guys are known as Majorana fermions.

Majorana-based qubits

There fermions (a type of subatomic particle) can handle environmental noise and decoherence, which brings us back to the problem of quantum computing being susceptible to environmental changes.

The use of these fermions provides robustness against environmental noise and decoherence, which are significant challenges in quantum computing.

The use of Majorana fermions will thus result in more stable and reliable quantum computations.

This research^[1] has propelled Microsoft’s quantum computing journey to new heights.

Quantum computer timeline

In short, Microsoft is saying they have reached a “foundational implementation level” when it comes to noisy intermediate-scale quantum machines.^[2]

In case it wasn’t clear before, this is huge for quantum computing.

The next milestone to reach would be achieving a “resilient level”.

In order to do this, Microsoft must develop a quantum computer capable of performing a million reliable quantum operations per second.

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References:

_{[1] InAs-Al hybrid devices passing the topological gap protocol; Morteza Aghaee et al. (Microsoft Quantum) Phys. Rev. B 107, 245423; published 21 June 2023}
^{[2] In a historic milestone, Azure Quantum demonstrates formerly elusive physics needed to build scalable topological qubits; Jennifer Langston, Microsoft; 14 March 2022}