IBM releases roadmap: launch large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029

PANews June 15 news, according to Cailian Press, IBM announced this week that it plans to launch a practical large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029, and detailed the company's roadmap to achieve this goal. IBM said it plans to have a larger-scale quantum computing system by 2029. The company will build a quantum computer called "Starling" in a data center in Poughkeepsie, New York, and said it will have about 200 logical qubits. The computing power is expected to reach 20,000 times that of existing quantum computers, which can support users to explore complex quantum states that far exceed the limitations of current devices. Qubits are the basic units of quantum computing, and 200 qubits are enough to begin to show advantages over classical computers.

Jay Gambetta, IBM’s vice president of quantum business, claimed that IBM’s confidence in its 2029 roadmap stems from two recent advances: further progress on a new method to reduce errors, called qLDPC error-correcting codes, and the use of traditional computing techniques to identify and correct errors in real time.

Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate commented that it is unclear how IBM's breakthrough will "translate into tangible business value," and the transformative potential of fault-tolerant quantum computers remains a matter of speculation. IBM's plan also does not detail the commercial availability of its new quantum computer, nor the specific date for the release of its error-correcting system.

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