Microsoft, in collaboration with quantum-computing company Quantinuum, announced that they have reached a new high in quantum error correction, which finally moves the industry into a new phase of quantum computing.
Existing quantum computers all fall into the first stage of quantum computing: the foundational level, also known as “noisy intermediate scale quantum,” or NISQ, says Krysta Svore, vice president of advanced quantum development at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. “The significance of this announcement is that we’re achieving level two: resilient quantum computing,” she says.
That means that commercially viable quantum computing, which requires at least 1,000 reliable, logical qubits, is now years away, instead of decades, Svore says. And scientifically useful quantum computing, which only requires 100 qubits, is even closer.