Seattle: For Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, quantum computing is among three technologies — the other two being Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Mixed Reality — that will soon disrupt the status quo, impacting our lives, communities and economies.
Believed to be a lot faster and more capable than the existing computing systems, quantum computing is set to herald the next wave of the digital revolution.
Researchers at Microsoft are busy writing the software to build a scalable computer that will help humanity unlock solutions to problems in areas such as clean energy, global warming, materials design and much more — including solving the mysteries of our universe.
If all goes well, Microsoft is confident about having one such scalable super machine within the next five years.
Based on quantum bits, the computer will not use classical bits but qubits which are not limited to binary and can have properties of 0 and 1 simultaneously, thus trying every possible number and sequence simultaneously to unlock vast amounts of data.
The current bits in computers store information as either 1 or 0, thus limiting the potential to make sense when faced with gigantic volumes of data.
“We are looking at a five-year time-frame to build a quantum computer and what we need are roughly 100-200 good qubits with a low-error rate,” Krysta Svore, Principal Research Manager, Microsoft Quantum Computing, told IANS here.
Microsoft has also partnered with various stakeholders, including universities and governments, to realise the dream.
“We need a global effort for quantum research. There are quantum computers but they are small-scale ones and we are trying to push into finding better qubits,” added Svore, who leads the Microsoft Quantum-Redmond (QuArC) group.
Not just Microsoft but several other tech giants like IBM, Google and Intel have joined the race to build a scalable quantum computer.
Google has unveiled “Bristlecone” — a quantum computing chip with 72 qubits. IBM announced a 50-qubit processor last year.
A quantum computer can solve complex problems that would otherwise take billions of years for today’s computers to solve.
This has massive implications for research in health care, energy, environmental systems, smart materials and more.
Microsoft, however, has an added advantage: Its quantum system can integrate seamlessly with its highly-secure Azure Cloud. (IANS)
