Microsoft is fully investing in generative artificial intelligence projects, such as Copilot, Bing Chat, etc. However, the company has also been working on quantum computing, which could revolutionize the entire field of computing.
In a new blog post, Microsoft has outlined a roadmap for creating a quantum computer. Microsoft says they have achieved the first of these milestones, the creation and control of quasiparticles called Majoranas. Microsoft says this is the first step in making hardware-protected quantum bits (qubits), the building blocks of quantum computers.
Microsoft said: “With this achievement, we are closer to making a new hardware-protected qubit. With it, we can make reliable logical qubits up to Resilient Level and then Scale further.”
Creating a quantum computer that can produce accurate results is tricky because qubits are sensitive to tiny influences from the outside world. Microsoft said they came up with a new metric called reliable quantum operations per second (rQOPS). Microsoft said: “It considers the performance of the entire system, not just the performance of qubits, so it can guarantee that the algorithm will run correctly. Our industry has not yet transitioned from the NISQ era, so today’s quantum computers are at the first level, rQOPS Zero. The first quantum supercomputer will need at least 1 million rQOPS and will scale to more than 1 billion to solve impactful chemistry and materials science problems.”
In a chat with TechCrunch, Microsoft’s vice president of advanced quantum development Krysta Svore said that within 10 years, the last part of the company’s quantum computing roadmap, which is to create a quantum supercomputer, will be reached.
