IBM has laid out a timeline for it to build a large-scale quantum computer, after years of research and development in the emerging field.
IBM announced on Monday the “course to build world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant Quantum Computer,” which is known as “IBM Quantum Starling”, and is set to arrive in 2029.
Quantum computers make use of quantum-mechanical phenomena as the basis for systems that are expected to eventually far surpass the performance of classical computers, leading to fundamental shifts in areas such as cryptography.
While they are still at the experimental stage, the computers are functional and organisations have begun making use of them in order to be prepared once the technology becomes more practical to use.
Quantum roadmap
And this week IBM “unveiled its path to build the world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer, setting the stage for practical and scalable quantum computing.”
“Delivered by 2029, IBM Quantum Starling will be built in a new IBM Quantum Data Center in Poughkeepsie, New York and is expected to perform 20,000 times more operations than today’s quantum computers,” said IBM.
“To represent the computational state of an IBM Starling would require the memory of more than a quindecillion (1048) of the world’s most powerful supercomputers,” it said. “With Starling, users will be able to fully explore the complexity of its quantum states, which are beyond the limited properties able to be accessed by current quantum computers.”
IBM said it already operates a large, global fleet of quantum computers, but is now releasing a new Quantum Roadmap that outlines its plans to build out a practical, fault-tolerant quantum computer.
“IBM is charting the next frontier in quantum computing,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM. “Our expertise across mathematics, physics, and engineering is paving the way for a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer — one that will solve real-world challenges and unlock immense possibilities for business.”
The IBM Quantum Starling is expected to run 100 million quantum operations using 200 logical qubits. It will be the foundation for IBM Quantum Blue Jay, which will be capable of executing 1 billion quantum operations over 2,000 logical qubits.
IBM said that its new IBM Quantum Roadmap reveals that IBM Quantum Loon is expected in 2025, is designed to test architecture components for the qLDPC code, including “C-couplers” that connect qubits over longer distances within the same chip.
After that in 2026, IBM Quantum Kookaburra will be IBM’s first modular processor designed to store and process encoded information.
Then in 2027 IBM Quantum Cockatoo will entangle two Kookaburra modules using “L-couplers.” This architecture will link quantum chips together like nodes in a larger system, avoiding the need to build impractically large chips.
Together, these advancements are being designed to culminate in IBM Quantum Starling in 2029.
Quantum development
IBM has been developing its quantum computing capabilities for years now.
In 2016 it made quantum computing available to the public as a cloud-based on-demand service for use in quantum processing experiments.
Then in 2017 IBM became the first company to begin building a commercial programme around early-stage general-purpose quantum computers.
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IBM had in 2019 unveiled its IBM Quantum System One, the world’s first integrated quantum computing system.
In November 2021 when IBM had claimed a breakthrough in quantum computing, with its Eagle processor that delivered “127 qubits on a single IBM quantum processor for the first time with breakthrough packaging technology.”
Then in November 2022 Big Blue had announced the Osprey, which was a 433-qubit system that was three times the number of qubits than its Eagle machine announced in 2021.
In December 2023 IBM unveiled two new quantum developments, namely the ‘IBM Quantum Heron’ processor, as well as the IBM Quantum System Two, which it said is its first modular quantum computer and cornerstone of quantum-centric supercomputing architecture.
The first IBM Quantum System Two is currently located in Yorktown Heights, New York, and has begun operations with three IBM Heron processors, each of which offers 133 qubits processing power.
Image credit: Ryan Lavine for IBM
