A 1000+ qubit computer by 2023
On September 15, Jay Gambetta published a blog post on “IBM’s Roadmap for scaling quantum technology” [1]. Gambetta is an IBM Fellow and Vice President, IBM Quantum. In contrast to roadmaps, example, for semiconductor development, this roadmap is limited to a perspective for the next four years. Nevertheless, the presented steps toward the commercialization of IBM’s quantum computers are ambitious.
Gambetta compares the development of quantum computers with the effort of the moon landing in 1969. Given the multibillion funding initiatives which are currently exercised in various countries he might be right. It took huge amounts of money to take a few men to the moon and to bring them back safely. Similarly, it may take large investments in research and development to get to, as Gambetta says, “the million-plus qubit devices of the future”. IBM is one of the few large none-governmental players (such as Google) who embark on such a development.
Doubling qubit numbers every year
IBM has a long record in developing quantum technologies and an even longer history in introducing such new technology into industrial technology. For example, the first transistor-based computers were brought to market by IBM in the late 1950s.
In more recent years, namely 2019, they presented the IBM Q System One as “the world’s first integrated universal approximate quantum computing system for commercial use.” In the same announcement [2], they also estimated that they need to at least double quantum volume every year to achieve the so-called Quantum-Advantage in the 2020s.
That estimation is turned into a plan in their roadmap blogpost. With the recent upgrade of one of their 27-quboit systems, they reached 64 qubits [3] this year. Their roadmap extends to 2023, when IBM plans to present their 1.121 qubits system named Condor. As a major challenge they see cooling. Thus, they started to build their own dilution refrigerator codenamed “Goldeneye”, which would be larger than any other commercially available system. That is, as they say, planned for a million qubits.
What for?
While the moonshot was created in a cold war race mainly for publicity, quantum computing claims to solve real world problems. One could be in material science. IBM scientists want to use quantum computers and artificial intelligence to reduce the development times and costs for new materials by 90% [4]. It remains to be seen whether IBM remains on track, and more importantly, whether quantum computers will make an impact to everyday life. Or whether it will land in a museum like the moon rockets.
References
[1] https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2020/09/ibm-quantum-roadmap/.Search in Google Scholar
[2] https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/03/power-quantum-device/.Search in Google Scholar
[3] https://newsroom.ibm.com/2020-08-20-IBM-Delivers-Its-Highest-Quantum-Volume-to-Date-Expanding-the-Computational-Power-of-its-IBM-Cloud-Accessible-Quantum-Computers.Search in Google Scholar
[4] https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2020/09/ibm-5-in-5-accelerating-process-of-discovery/.Search in Google Scholar
Community
EOS News
EOSAM 2020 held an online conference for the first time ever!
Initially, the European Optical Society (EOS) planned to celebrate its Annual international conference and industrial exhibition, EOSAM, under the warm sun of Porto, Portugal. The meeting was organized together with the Portuguese Society for Optics and photonics, SPOF, to take place from 7 to 11 September 2020. However, due to the circumstances with the Covid pandemic, we wanted to ensure the safety of our attendees and their families, and made the difficult decision to move the onsite event into the online form, for the first time ever in the history of EOSAM.
During the conference week, 7–11 September, EOS offered live and on-demand presentations free of charge for attendees, with a chance to register and view the presentations also after the conference week until 25 September.
120 presentations and more…
The conference week included the School of Physics on Optical Metrology, four live plenary talks and over 120 invited and contributed presentations on all the topical meetings.
On Monday, the Physics School on Optical Metrology was held with three intriguing talks on the topic. The general assembly was held as an online meeting to all EOS members, where EOS goals and activities were presented to the members.
At the opening ceremony on Tuesday, we had the privilege to hear the plenary talk from Yuri Kivshar from the Nonlinear Physics Center at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, on Metaphotonics and metasurfaces.
On Tuesday, Hatice Altug from the Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, held her plenary talk on New Frontiers in NanoPhotonics: Next-Generation BioSensors. This was a special session as Hatice also received the esteemed Emmy Noether distinction from the European Physical Society (EPS) after her talk.
Later in the week, we heard the plenary talks from Luis Plaja, University of Salamanca, Spain on Boost in translation: Structuring high-frequency light using high-harmonic sources, and the plenary talk from José Luís Santos, Physics and Astronomy Department of Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto, Portugal on New Paths in Optical Sensing.
See you in Paris!
This year has certainly been challenging for all, but it was nice to see the community coming together online to present and view the latest research in the field. It was a great pleasure to provide a platform for the researchers to present their research, in times when conferences in person cannot be held.
We wish to warmly thank all our attendees, speakers, chairs, program committee members, sponsors, the EOS Partner societies, the Portuguese Society for Optics and Photonics, and the local support in Porto for creating the event.
We hope to see you all in person in Paris, at the EOSAM in 6–11 September 2021!
Community
Conference calendar
The Calendar has been reviewed on 1st October. Due to further regulations in response to the worldwide pandemic, dates or locations may vary from this list.
Nevertheless, the pandemic may offer new opportunities as well. Please visit the website of a conference you missed. Some offer on-demand viewing of the meeting. And most often, it is for free!
October
OSA Laser Congress/ASSL
Virtual web conference
12–16. October 2020
www.osa.org/Meetings/OSA_Meetings/Laser_Congress
FOC 2020
Frontiers of Optical Coatings
Beijing, China
17–22. October 2020
http://foc.tongji.edu.cn/index.php?
November
VISION: canceled
Stuttgart, Germany
Moved to October 2021
www.messe-stuttgart.de/vision/
SPIE Future Sensing Technologies
Digital Forum
9–13. November 2020
December
SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation
Digital Forum
14–18. December 2020
2021
February
SPIE Medical Imaging
San Diego, CA, USA
14–18. February 2021
SPIE Advanced Lithography
San Jose, CA, USA
21–25. February 2021
March
SPIE Photonics West
San Francisco, CA, USA
6–11. March 2021
SPIE AR | VR | MR
San Francisco, CA, USA
7–9. March 2021
Optical Fiber Communication
San Francisco, CA, USA
28 March–1 April 2021
April
OSA Biophotonics Congress
Vancouver, BC, Canada
12–15. April 2021
www.osa.org/en-us/meetings/osa_meetings/osa_biophotonics_congress/
SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing
Orlando, FL, USA
11–15. April 2021
SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics
Prague, Czech Republic
19–22 April 2021
May
CLEO 2021
San Jose, CA, USA
9–14. May 2021
DGaO Tagung
Bremen, Germany
25–29. May 2021
June
LASER World of Photonics
Munich, Germany
21–24. June 2021
World of Photonics Congress
Munich, Germany
20–24. June 2021
www.photonics-congress.com/en/
SPIE Conferences @WoP Congress
Biomedical Optics
Digital Optical Technologies
Optical Metrology
Munich, Germany
20–24. June 2021
https://spie.org/conferences-and-exhibitions
OSA Optical Design and Fabrication Congress
Providence, Rhode Island, USA
27 June–1 July 2021
www.osa.org/en-us/meetings/osa_meetings/optical_design_and_fabrication/
September
EOS Annual Meeting
Paris, France
6–10. September 2021
www.europeanoptics.org/events/eos/eosam2021.html
October
VISION
Stuttgart, Germany
5–7.10.2021
www.messe-stuttgart.de/vision/
Frontiers in Optics: the 105th OSA Annual Laser Science Conference
Washington, DC, USA
10–14. October 2021
SPIE Optifab
Rochester, NY, USA
18–21. October 2021
2022
Optical Fiber Communication
San Diego, CA, USA
6–10. March 2022
AKL’22
Aachen, Germany
4–6. May 2022
CLEO
San Jose, CA, USA
15–20. May 2022
DGaO Tagung
Gent, Belgium
7–10. June 2022
LASYS
Stuttgart, Germany
21–23 June 2022
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