Quantum computer with 5,000 of qubits went to Los Alamos. D-Wave sold the first copy

The company D-Wave Systems has announced that it managed to sell the first quantum computer with up to 5 thousand. qubits. The machine will go to the National Laboratory in Los Alamos (LANL), where it will help solve logistic problems related to, for example, traffic.

If you associate an article about Google’s groundbreaking achievement, which is to prove quantum supremacy on 53 qubits, then you certainly want to ask: Well, do they make a hit from such a kite, and those a few days later sell n-times faster equipment? Well, these two quantum computers are designed for completely different purposes, and therefore they can not be compared.

While Google’s machine is a random number generator, D-Wave has built equipment for so-called quantum annealing. It is an algorithm that uses the quantum system to indicate the best solutions for a given problem in a space containing many potential possibilities.

Previously, LANL specialists used the system with 2,000 qubits. The manufacturer boasts that not only the amount of computing resources but also the quality has increased. He mentions the reduced noise that the new qubit topology provides . This, however, is completely understandable, covered in secret, and we get only the phrase and a guarantee of unprecedented performance.

More details will be revealed at the September ending conference in Newport, Rhode Island, where quantum pioneers, the first users and application developers will appear.