IBM announces that its System Q One quantum computer has reached its 'highest quantum volume to date'
IBM has announced at this year's American Physical Society meeting that its System Q One quantum computer has reached its "highest quantum volume to date"—a measure that the computer has doubled in performance in each of the past two years, the company reports. Quantum computers are, as their name implies, computers based on quantum bits. Many physicists and computer scientists believe they will soon outperform traditional computers. Unfortunately, reaching that goal has proven to be a difficult challenge. Several big-name companies have built quantum computers, but none are ready to compete with traditional hardware just yet. These companies have, over time, come to use the number of qubits that a given quantum computer uses as a means of measuring its performance—but most in the field agree that such a number is not really a good way to compare two very different quantum computers. IBM is one of the big-name companies working to create a truly ...