IBM invests up to $20 billion in quantum computing development

Once a mass-produced personal computer, the U.S.
corporation IBM has in recent years focused on software development and building server systems for high-performance computing.
Following the example of Intel and Micron, it is also going to apply for government subsidies for the development of its cluster in New York state, which will specialize in quantum computing.According to Reuters, the ceremony to announce new investments in this area this week will involve U.S.
President Joseph Biden, who will visit New York state and speak at the place Poughkeepsie, where IBM conducts specialized research.
Biden will be accompanied by IBM CEO Arvind Krishna.
The company plans to turn this site into \"a global hub for quantum computing development.
IBM will allocate $20 billion to finance the corresponding needs.
What size subsidies it will be able to claim, it is not specified.In general, IBM representatives said that funding of the national semiconductor industry in the U.S.
will provide modern computers and artificial intelligence systems with chips of the next generation.
The $20 billion investment will span a decade and cover the areas of semiconductor component development and production, as well as mainframe technology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
The specific scheme of distribution of funds between these areas of activity is not given.

Intel achieves record 95% yield of good quantum chips

Intel has reported achieving the industry's highest yield of good quantum chips based on silicon spin qubits, as they were produced at its research center in Oregon, USA.
In this case, the company also claims the maximum uniformity of manufactured solutions.
This is an important achievement in the work on quantum chips based on Intel's transistor manufacturing processes.Image source: intc.comThe study was conducted on a second-generation Intel test chip.
Using a cryoprobe, the temperature was reduced to 1.7 K (-271.45 °C), and the scientists isolated 12 quantum dots and four sensors.
The test results confirmed that the company had obtained the industry's largest silicon spin electron device: one electron in each position on the entire 300-mm wafer.Today, silicon spin qubits are produced on individual chips, but Intel has succeeded on an entire wafer.
EUV lithography production demonstrated a 95% yield of good chips on the wafer: using a cryoprobe and specialized software, scientists obtained over 900 single and over 400 double quantum bits in less than 24 hours at temperatures one degree above absolute zero.The improved yield and uniformity of low-temperature components compared to previous Intel test chips allowed the company to apply statistical control to identify areas of the manufacturing process to be further tested.
This was an important step toward scaling production to the thousands or millions of qubits needed for a commercial quantum computer.
\"Intel continues to move toward silicon spin qubit production using its transistor production technology.
High yields and uniformity show that producing quantum chips on Intel's existing transistor nodes is a defensible strategy and a compelling indicator of success as the technology moves toward the commercial stage.
Going forward, we will continue to improve the quality of these components and develop larger scale systems, and these steps will be the building blocks for our accelerated growth,\" commented James Clarke, Intel Quantum Hardware division director, on the achievement.

NVIDIA Wants to Combine Classical and Quantum Computers - Need a Fast Interface and Easy Programming Model

NVIDIA is pushing the idea of combining elements of quantum and classical computers to speed up computation.
In particular, the company is working to incorporate its graphics processing unit (GPU) computing gas pedals into quantum systems, as well as to simplify the creation of quantum algorithms.
And today NVIDIA has announced new steps on that path.NVIDIA some time ago introduced the cuQuantum toolkit, which allows the simulation of algorithms for quantum processors on NVIDIA A100 GPUs, and more specifically on their tensor cores.
This made it easier to enter the world of quantum computing.
QuQuantum, in particular, is available to everyone as part of the AWS cloud.
Now NVIDIA intends to merge quantum and classical systems.
To do this, NVIDIA wants to create a low-latency interface that will allow it to link its quantum computing gas pedals and quantum processors (QPUs).
This would allow quantum computers to use the powerful parallel computing potential of GPUs to solve classical problems.
In particular, it is proposed to use them for circuit optimization, calibration and error correction.
GPUs can reduce the time it takes to perform these tasks and reduce communication latency between classical and quantum computers, a major bottleneck for today's hybrid quantum systems.NVIDIA also believes the quantum computing industry needs a unified programming model with tools that are efficient and easy to use.
Today, researchers are forced to use the quantum equivalent of low-level assembly code to program QPUs, which is beyond the capabilities of many scientists.
NVIDIA will offer a suite of tools that allow scientists to easily implement their quantum algorithms, first on simulated QPUs, then on real QPUs.
What's needed is a compiler that can run in both environments.
By combining GPU quantum computing simulation tools with a unified programming model and compiler, researchers will be able to begin building hybrid quantum data centers, according to NVIDIA.