Quantum computing has generated immense hype in recent years due to its potentially staggering computational power.
However, questions still remain around when quantum machines will truly be accessible. The deep dive article aims to comprehensively shed light on the current state of quantum technologies and determine which statement most accurately characterizes availability at the crucial stage in the field’s development.
Current Availability of Quantum Computers
The current availability of quantum computers is still very low due to the challenges of engineering systems with stable superconducting qubits.
While researchers are making rapid progress developing prototype quantum devices, the state of the art current availability quantum computers are still limited to around 50 qubits and have severe constraints on runtime and connectivity that reduce their practical capabilities for real world problems.
Quantum Computing Research Remains Firmly Rooted in Labs
While enormous progress has been made, one must conclude that quantum computing is unequivocally still very much in the research phase.
The vast preponderance of quantum hardware currently exists within academic institutions and research facilities where scientists are rigorously experimenting with various approaches to scaling up qubits and addressing debilitating errors.
Most prominent quantum computing programs are based at academic powerhouses like the University of Melbourne, Delft University of Technology, Universitat Autรฒnoma de Barcelona.
The University of Science and Technology of China, as well as national quantum initiatives in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the U.K. Peer reviewed studies report qubits numbering in the low dozens at best, and error rates that prohibit scaling to larger practical sizes.
Commercial quantum efforts have likewise only achieved fledgling capabilities so far.
D Wave’s latest 3000 qubit Advantage system, housed in a temperature regulated clean room, can operate as a constrained quantum annealer targeting specific optimization problems.
However, its qubit coherence times are limited, and computational models question whether quantum speedups have truly been achieved.
Other gate based devices from IBM, Rigetti, IonQ, and Quantinuum have demonstrated quantum volumes in the low tens of qubits through benchmarking processes.
A fundamental roadblock is that error correction techniques, which will be necessary to scale to larger and more useful devices, have remained theoretical rather than implemented in practical systems.
Even early proof of principle experiments attempting error detection have found it exceedingly challenging.
Most experts conservatively estimate we are still a decade or more away from achieving error corrected quantum computers capable of “quantum supremacy” over classical machines for meaningful problems.
The field still faces immense barriers before scalable fault tolerant computing can become reality.
NISQ Devices Provide Limited Early Access
While fully fault tolerant quantum systems inevitably remain many years off, a small handful of technology startups have begun making limited cloud based access to Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers available.
D Wave and IonQ have opened up access to their 2000+ qubit annealers and 10 to 50 qubit gate model systems respectively through their online portals.
These provide outside researchers, students, and enterprises the ability to run algorithms and experiments on live quantum hardware for the first time.
However, observers must remain sober about current NISQ device capabilities. Performance is restricted by small qubit counts, connections, and error rates 1 to 3 orders of magnitude higher than the threshold for useful quantum speedups.
While demonstrations of quantum supremacy may be achievable for carefully designed computational tasks, true fault tolerance and general problem solving remains denied with today’s atomic scale qubits.
Nonetheless, a growing diversity of applications is emerging where NISQ devices may outperform classical counterparts, even if only narrowly.
In addition to optimization problems perfectly tailored for annealers, early demonstrations using gate models include quantum machine learning for classification, quantum simulation of chemical reactions, and scheduling algorithms.
Researchers caution most will find general algorithms are still far more efficiently solved on classical servers. Still, the prospect of even limited quantum resources is reinvigorating entire fields.
Steady Progress Promises an Impending Quantum Revolution
Looking forward, while the challenges involved in scaling quantum technologies should not be discounted, steady across the board progress inspires optimism.
Qubit coherence times are gradually extending from microseconds into milliseconds as nanofabrication and materials science advances. Multi qubit entangling gate fidelities are rising from the 90th percentile into the high 90s.
Algorithms are becoming ever more sophisticated at extracting salient information from noisy devices. Large scale integration milestones like Intel’s cryogenic control chip herald new generations of co designed quantum classical systems.
Successful ion trap and superconducting qubit startups are drawing in unprecedented VC investment to turbocharge workforce growth.
National quantum initiatives are coordinating global collaboration and driving down costs via research infrastructure.
And unified quantum programming languages are now making the field more accessible to a broader community of users, researchers, and citizen scientists.
Experts surveyed by McKinsey recently predicted the arrival of NISQ computers in the 50 to 300 qubit range could enable useful quantum applications within the coming decade, with larger prescriptive systems emerging by the late 2020s or 2030s.
Research on the current availability of quantum computers and how it impacts the development of new technologies will help scientists plan for the future of computing as the current availability of quantum computers increases over the next decade.
FAQ
Q. What is the best description of the current state of quantum computing?
A. Trapped ions and superconducting qubits.
Q. What are the current issues with quantum computers?
A. Fragility, qubit interconnection, decoherence, and external noise.
Q. What is the current quantum model?
A. Views electrons within an atom as waves, not as particles as previously believed.
Q. How many states can a quantum computer have?
A. 16 states at the same time.
Q. What are the concepts of quantum computing?
A. Superposition, qubits, and entanglement.
Conclusion
In summary, while quantum technologies undeniably remain nascent exploratory works in progress based out of specialized labs, their imminent practical impact now seems virtually assured.
Steady enhancements across hardware, software and manufacturing bode well for translating quantum’s theoretical advantages into real world solutions at both national scale and commercial scale within the near future.
The field is blossoming from a niche academic niche into an applied discipline soon to disrupt whole industries and tackle challenges beyond classic’s ability.
If not yet today, then in the not so far off future, the promise of quantum becomes reality.
