Universities Space Research Association acquiring it too.
By Raif Karerat
Google, NASA, and the Universities Space Research Association announced today that they’re getting the newest and most powerful quantum computer on the market.
According to Popular Science, the new quantum computer, called the D-Wave 2X, is twice as powerful as its predecessor: “The 2X doubles the amount of qubits (a unit of quantum information analogous to a classical bit) from D-Wave’s previous model, to 1,000, and operates at 15 millikelvin (very, very, very cold).”
The idea is that, rather than performing relatively simple operations like standard computers and algorithms, quantum computers will be able to solve complex problems and figure out ways that many moving parts relate and affect another in an accelerated manner.
D-Wave’s systems have not been without controversy — some have questioned whether the machines truly perform quantum computing at all — but early results suggest Google and NASA are making progress on their research nonetheless, according to Fortune.
The new machine will continue the work presently being done in Google’s lab, optimization problems and machine learning, with time on the ultra-powerful D-Wave given to all partners.
“Through research at NASA Ames, we hope to demonstrate that quantum computing and quantum algorithms may someday dramatically improve our ability to solve difficult optimization problems for missions in aeronautics, Earth and space sciences, and space exploration,” said Eugene Tu, Center Director at NASA’s Ames Research Center, in a statement.
D-Wave’s chief rival in the quantum computing sector is a team of scientists from UC Santa Barbara team that was hired by Google in 2014. Whereas D-Wave strings together hundreds of qubits with higher error rates, the UC Santa Barbara group is working with smaller numbers of more reliable qubits, according to The Verge.
While it is unclear which technology will prevail, what is certain is that Google will have its first pick once the final results are in.