As we close another year in the exciting world of Quantum 2023, we look at some of the interesting events that happened over the past year in the Quantum Computing and Quantum Technology world. There is a lot to cover so we cannot summarise it all, so we’ll provide what we think are some of the more interesting highlights that happened.
Quantum 2023 a Year in Review
Over 1,000 Qubits
Atom Computing was the first to surpass the magic 1,000 Qubit Number. That is they shipped a device with over 1,000 qubits. Despite IBM throwing down the gauntlet with their advanced detailed roadmap, Big Blue got beaten to 1,000 qubits by Atom Computing. Later IBM did get to hit their roadmap and ship over 1,000 qubits with its processor named IBM Condor.
The milestone is crucial because it marks just how far the industry has come. We now have the sort of number of qubits that people once thought wasn’t possible. Of course, for truly useful computers we’ll need to get much better at scaling up and the manta by the likes of PsiQuantum founder stating that they want to get to a million qubits now feels manageable, still three orders of magnitude away, but it does seem manageable. The evolution of qubit count has been significant. Just 6 years ago, typically under 10 qubits were available for developers on the IBM Quantum Experience. Now routinely several hundred are available for developers.
Logical Qubits – death of NISQ?
Researchers from Harvard and a number of institiutions (such as Stanford) along with Quera Computing, a Quantum Computing company showed their prowess in developing higher fidelity qubits that can act as logical qubits, rather than working in the noisy regime – so named NISQ, a term coined by John Preskill. Discussions abound about the demise of NISQ.
AI Gets Attention, espeically Generative AI
Not strictly Quantum, but Artificial Intelligence has been making headlines around the planet with Generative AI. One reason this is important is that many had written off AI as never delivering anything valuable. The rise of AI and chatbots like chatGPT has surprised many. That means we think that people will be keen to avoid doing the same with the quantum field. 2023 has seen the release of multiple LLMs or Large Language Models from OpenAI, Google, and Mistral and even from Elon Musk’s xAI with Grok. We expect this trend to continue and for more AI services to be launched. The field of Machine Learning is dovetailing into Quantum with the field of QML or Quantum Machine Learning.
Quantum Utility, a new moniker from IBM
IBM came out with a new moniker for measuring quantum performance. We still like measuring qubit count, but it is not the olnly metric out there. There is quantum volume, or even flops, but IBM has now created a new term named quantum utility. IBM Quantum and UC Berkeley researchers have published a paper in Nature demonstrating the utility of quantum computing. Quantum utility refers to a quantum computer’s ability to perform reliable computations beyond the capabilities of classical computing methods.
You can Buy a Quantum Computer (if you really want)
Rigetti announced that it would sell its hardware directly. The superconducting chips are available for purpose for research purposes (unless you want one to show off with). If you want purchase a quantum computer (with 9 qubits), its going to sell you back the best part of $1,000,000 USD. Rigetti is not the first to sell a machine and that award goes to SpinQ, a chinese company that will sell an NMR machine with a couple of qubits for $5,000 and will fit on your desk.
Intel (INTC) gets seriously into Quantum
Intel is the only mainstream chip maker to build quantum devices. AMD has no programme we can detect and Nvidia which while, working to power quantum simulation has no hardware. Intel is a mainstream seilcon fabricator which is building quantum devices.
Intel has also released version 1.0 in 2023 of its Quantum Software Development Kit (SDK), a full quantum computer simulator that can also interface with genuine quantum hardware. The company released a beta version last year. Version 1.0 of the SDK includes an intuitive programming interface based on C++, providing a programming language that’s familiar to existing developers.
Intel is also working on Spin based Quantum Chips to maximise its existing expertise in semicondictors. Intel announced the release of its newest quantum research chip, Tunnel Falls, a 12-qubit silicon chip, and it is making the chip available to the quantum research community.
Quantum Start-up take aim at Quantum Hype
New Quantum “Start-up” Takes aim at Hype surrounding Quantum Computing. Dulwich Quantum has decided to poke fun at some of the more spurious claims of the quantum industry. We are still optimistic about some of the potential out there, but a healthy degree of skeptisim is often welcome.
New Superconductor LK99 Fizzles Out
The hype machine failed deliver promises of a room temperature superconductor which could have helped build new qubits. The purported superconductor named LK99 turned out to be not so easy to create after all.
AWS Braket Gains Momentum
Amazon’s Braket Service continues to onboard numerous providers to allow quantum computing in the cloud. Just as AWS or Amazon Web Services has gained collosal market share of the cloud market and no doubt is looking to apply to same “fly wheel” mechanics to its quantum offering named Braket. In 2023, Amazon Launched Braket Direct, Offering Access to Quantum Computing Units QPUs without Waiting.
Hardware providers typically look to expose their services on AWS just as traditional software vendors do in the traditional cloud space. We have seen plenty of continued roll-outs to existing services from the likes of Quera, IonQ and Wolfram.
Summary Quantum 2023
We lookforward to the exciting quantum developments we expect in Quantum 2024 as we say goodbye to Quantum 2023! Have a wonderful end of the year and keep doing magnificent things in quantum and techology.