Professor Fry drives through snowy Yorktown Heights New York discussing quantum computing and IBM. “One of the oldest companies in tech, IBM. They’ve been investing in new computing technology since the 1960s.” Professor Fry explains, “It’s like the Jetsons meets the Flintstones.”
Inside the IBM facility, Professor Fry meets IBM Quantum scientist Olivia Lanes to discuss IBM Quantum System Two. After briefly discussing the vast difference between current digital computing and quantum computing, Fry and Lanes remove the housing to show the interior of the quantum computer. IBM Quantum calls their palm-sized quantum computer the Heron chip, “This is the Heron chip. This is the 133 cubits that I am holding in the palm of my hand,” says Lanes. The chip contains the cubits that carry out the computations. But, any outside energy could cause issues, break an algorithm, and give wrong answers.
The quantum computing system must be shielded against all outside energy, including heat, to preserve the delicate Quantum state. The system chills the Heron chip to just above absolute zero. But this is only one of the elements in a massive sector of a global industry. With the promise of unimaginable computing power, the global race for quantum supremacy is raging.
