One of the many hurdles of quantum computing is getting those pesky qubits into machines. The more qubits one of these jungles has, the stronger it is. Though it’s not necessarily as simple as stuffing more qubits inside.
That’s why in some ways quantum computing is still a long way off for most of us. It is very difficult to develop at the moment, but researchers are coming up with smart solutions every day. Recently, we’ve seen teams figure out how to dramatically reduce cooling costs from millions of dollars to just thousands of dollars. Now, AOL reports that researchers from the University of Sussex and Universal Quantum have found a way to move qubits between computer chips much better than before.
Today, when we think of quantum computers, we usually think of hundreds of qubits. IBM has always pushed boundaries and is now the proud owner of the world’s largest quantum computer clocked at 433 qubits. However, if you’re looking for computers that you can actually buy, you’re looking at about 3 qubits for $58,000. Scientists hope to develop million-qubit machines to solve life’s problems, and these researchers may have just cracked the code to squeeze more qubits into quantum machines. These researchers have developed a modular approach that allows the chips to fit together like puzzle pieces. You can only store a limited number of qubits on a chip. The solution, therefore, is to make these chips upgradable by connection. The researchers used electric fields to link the chips and qubits could move between them, breaking world records for speed and accuracy.
They not only achieve a hit rate of 99.999993% and a connection speed of 2424/s, but can also maintain the qubit’s quantum properties. This marks the potential for stable and highly scalable quantum computing. This could be huge for AI and just in time for the much-anticipated quantum apocalypse.