IBM launches new quantum processors Loon and Nighthawk for faster computing

IBM’s Nanotech Complex wafer-fabrication facility located in Albany, New York. IBM

Developing revolutionary pharmaceutical drugs, testing new materials for cars, and modeling market scenarios that affect banks are just a few tasks that typically require months or years of development even with the most powerful computers.

But what if that time could be reduced to minutes or hours?

Here is the promise of quantum computing – a field that has been developing for decades and is attracting increasing interest and investment from tech giants and startups.

On Wednesday IBM introduced its new experimental devices – the Loon processor and the Nighthawk quantum computing chip, capable of performing more complex calculations than their predecessors. In recent years the world has heard about quantum announcements from Google, Microsoft, and other players.

Quantum computing could potentially drive economic growth across various sectors by about $1.3 trillion by 2035, and there are reasons to believe so. Experts say quantum technologies could be a breakthrough in cryptography, finance, science, and transportation, and IBM asserts that such systems could solve tasks in minutes or hours that ordinary computers would take thousands of years.

But there are still many challenges ahead. Quantum computing is not merely an upgrade of existing machines. It is a fundamentally different approach built on the laws of quantum physics.

“A fighter jet isn’t faster than a Ferrari because it has wings.”

Classical computers store and process data using “bits” – zero or one. Quantum computing uses “qubits,” which can simultaneously exist in multiple states thanks to superposition, allowing information to be processed much faster.

Imagine a spinning coin: a bit is heads or tails, whereas qubits can simultaneously represent both states or exist between them.

However, you should not expect quantum computers to replace your laptop or smartphone. The most powerful applications of quantum machines are linked to fields such as chemistry and mathematics, and they could potentially transform healthcare, the environment, finance, materials science, and cryptography.

Industrial Initiatives and Partnerships

BMW Group and Airbus, for example, are collaborating with quantum company Quantinuum to explore applying quantum computing in the development of fuel cells. Meanwhile Accenture Labs, biotech company Biogen, and quantum firm 1QBit are joining forces on drug discovery research. According to Accenture, quantum computers can compare molecules much larger than those within reach of ordinary computers.

“The main hope is that a quantum computer will be able to model any chemical or biological experiment you would conduct in a laboratory,” said Anand Natarajan, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

“The main hope is that a quantum computer will be able to model any chemical or biological experiment you would conduct in a laboratory.”

Quantum computing could also significantly impact cryptography and cybersecurity, as they could break data that is currently protected, warn experts.

“So this is also the main motivation – to ensure that our competitors cannot do this, and that we have this capability.”

In October, Wall Street Journal reporters reported that several companies working on quantum computing were negotiating with the U.S. Department of Commerce for possible deals involving federal funding in exchange for equity.

In comments to CNN, the Department of Commerce deputy press secretary said that talks about equity stakes with quantum companies are not taking place at the moment.

The industry is facing new challenges, notably that qubits are extremely sensitive to external factors: changes in temperature, light, and noise. Therefore IBM is testing an experimental processor called Loon to overcome errors and achieve fault tolerance at scale – a crucial step on the path to practical quantum systems.

“If I just jiggle the table, I could ruin our quantum computers. If a bit of light gets in there, it could damage them.”

Below, Nighthawk demonstrates the ability to perform more complex “gates” – the key operations of quantum algorithms required to process large computational sets. This is an important step toward scalable quantum applications.

IBM is not the only player in the quantum race. Microsoft unveiled the Majorana 1 chip using a special material to stabilize the qubit, and Google introduced the Willow chip, which, they say, helps reduce errors with more qubits and promises to do in five minutes what a classical computer would take billions of years.

There is currently no definitive answer as to when quantum computing will fully live up to expectations. Anand Natarajan believes it will take another one or two decades, while McKinsey estimates that 72% of technology leaders, investors, and academics expect the emergence of a fully fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2035. IBM expects to achieve fault tolerance by the end of the decade.

“Right now, in a sense, we’re trying to operate the brain with a spoon and fork. But for brain operations we need more sophisticated tools,” concluded Sridhar Tayur of Carnegie Mellon.

This material was prepared by journalists, including Elizabeth Buchwald of CNN and others.