U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has chosen Microsoft to be its partner in investigating scaled quantum computing as part of DARPA’s more extensive quantum strategies. DARPA has long been at the forefront of technology and is vital to the advancement of the quantum technology ecosystem. At Microsoft, the goal is to deliver quantum computing to the world in meaningful and responsible ways.
The collaboration with DARPA will allow the investigation of the benefits of the distinct approach to realizing the promise of quantum technologies. Microsoft has adopted a more complex, but is best believed to be the more promising, approach towards scaled quantum computing by designing the system with topological qubits.
Using Topological Qubits for a Scalable Quantum Computer
The unique qubit architecture is hypothesized to allow the quantum machines to be tiny enough to fit in a closet, fast enough to solve problems in a reasonable amount of time, and capable of controlling over one million qubits.
Microsoft designed its quantum program with scale, believing that a machine would require at least one million qubits to address a wide range of traditionally unsolvable problems. The resource estimation tool that intends to help quantum developers to create and improve algorithms that will run on tomorrow’s scaled quantum computers has revealed this massive scale demand.
The company is said to be pretty confident with this design, given their breakthrough towards engineering the world’s first topological qubit and addressing a significant physics hurdle in creating scaled quantum machines.
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