Honeywell’s quantum computer is now commercially available after it was first announced in March. The company, best known in the US for making thermostats, says enterprise customers can access the machine either directly through one of its own interfaces or via Microsoft’s Azure Quantum portal. As it did when it unveiled the device, Honeywell claims it’s the world’s most powerful quantum computer. 

Typically, when most companies talk about quantum computers, they usually mention qubits. Honeywell is instead using a metric called quantum volume to play up the capabilities of its machine. The term tries to capture the “quality” of qubits. The larger the quantum volume value, the more complex problems the computer can solve. Honeywell says its computer features a quantum volume of 64. For context, IBM recently said its latest quantum computer had a quantum volume of 32.

Intel has edged one step closer to practical quantum computers. The chipmaker and its partner QuTech have successfully controlled “hot” qubits (that is, at temperatures above 1 kelvin) that are also coherent and dense, making it easier to put qubits and control electronics on the same chip and thus produce more advanced quantum computers. Until now, quantum computers had to run at temperatures in the millikelvin range, or barely above absolute zero (just under -460F) — for context, the average temperature in outer space is a balmy 3 kelvin.

The demonstration was still relatively modest. Intel and QuTech completed their test using two-qubit logic where cutting-edge quantum computers have dozens of qubits and a full-featured computer may need over 1 million. This is “just one step” toward scalable quantum computers, Intel said. It’s still an important step, though, and hints that the technology is more viable than it seems today.

The system-on-chip is based on Intel’s 22-nanometer FinFET Low Power process and includes four radio frequency channels that can control a total of 128 qubits. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s more than double the 49 qubits Intel was boasting for its Tangle Lake test chip back in early 2018. It should lead to smaller (or at least, more efficient) quantum computers by allowing one chip to handle more tasks without as many cables and rack instrumentations.

You can also expect faster, higher-fidelity qubits. Intel said Horse Ridge has “optimized” multiplexing that allows it to both scale and reduce the crosstalk errors that pop up when handling larger numbers of qubits at different frequencies. There should be greater accuracy and better overall performance. The chip can handle a wide frequency range, too, including superconducting qubits around 6GHz to 7GHz and smaller spin qubits at 13GHz to 20GHz.

Quantum computers that use Horse Ridge might not need to stay so cold, either. Intel is hoping to use silicon spin qubits that can operate at temperatures as “high” as 1 kelvin (just above -458F), and Horse Ridge “paves the way” for making a single package that combines those qubits with their controls.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, it’s estimated that a full-fledged quantum computer would need over 1 million qubits to be viable. Intel said in 2018 that it didn’t expect such chips to even be on the radar for another five to seven years, and that’s still a long while off. Horse Ridge shows how Intel is progressing toward that goal, though, and there are still tasks quantum computers can perform in the near term that might be impractical for conventional systems.

The very concept of a quantum computer can be daunting, let alone programming it, but Microsoft thinks it can offer a helping hand. It’s partnering with Alphabet’s X and Brilliant on an online curriculum for quantum computing. The course starts with basic concepts and gradually introduces you to Microsoft’s Q# language, teaching you how to write ‘simple’ quantum algorithms before moving on to truly complicated scenarios. You can handle everything on the web (including quantum circuit puzzles), and there’s a simulator to verify that you’re on the right track.

Existing techniques for both studying light and extracting 3D info are inherently limited by the size of wavelengths. This allows a considerably higher resolution that can even include holographic movies of fast-moving objects.

The approach is still very early and might not reach quantum computers for a long time. However, it does hint at a future where you could have secure yet small quantum processors. Existing quantum computers tend to be giant, room-sized affairs — there’s no guarantee EPFL’s design will lead to something that fits on your desk or in your pocket, but it’s a step in the right direction.