By Stephen Nellis
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -IBM said on Friday it is able to run a key quantum computing algorithm on commonly available chips from Advanced Micro Devices, in a step toward commercializing super-powerful computers.
The U.S. stalwart is racing to develop quantum computing against Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google, which announced a breakthrough algorithm this week.
Quantum computers use what are known as qubits to tackle problems that would take conventional computers thousands of years to crack – problems such as how trillions of atoms react over time. However, qubits are prone to errors that can quickly overwhelm the useful computing work of a quantum chip.
In June, IBM said it had developed an algorithm to run alongside quantum chips that can address such errors. In a research paper seen by Reuters to be published Monday, IBM will show that it can run those algorithms in real time on a type of chip called a field programmable gate array manufactured by AMD.
Jay Gambetta, the IBM vice president running the firm’s quantum efforts, said the work showed that IBM’s algorithm not only works in the real world, but can operate on a readily available AMD chip that is not “ridiculously expensive.”
“Implementing it, and showing that the implementation is actually 10 times faster than what is needed, is a big deal,” Gambetta said in an interview.
IBM has a multi-year plan to build a quantum computer called Starling by 2029. Gambetta said the algorithm work disclosed Friday was completed a year ahead of schedule.
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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