The fourth-generation quantum computer from Canada-based D-Wave Systems is twice as powerful as its predecessor, and can outperform advanced silicon-based servers by a factor of up to 10,000, according to the company.
Released for general commercial availability today, the D-Wave 2000Q provides 2,000 qubits (quantum bits) of computing power along with new features for optimizing problem solving. Priced at $15 million, the new computer promises practical applications in areas such as cybersecurity and machine learning, D-Wave said.
In fact, the first customer to acquire a D-Wave 2000Q is a Washington state-based cybersecurity company, Temporal Defense Systems. TDS said it plans to combine the computer with its own technology to “solve some of the most critical and complex cyber security problems impacting governments and commercial enterprises.”
Thumbnail-Size QPU
According to quantum computing experts, these kinds of computers promise to deliver significant improvements in calculation and analysis speeds compared to traditional machines based on silicon chips. Rather than using the binary digits “0” and “1” — known as bits — to store information, quantum computers use qubits that can exist in different states at the same time, meaning information can be encoded as “0s, 1s, or both simultaneously,” D-Wave said.
“Despite the incredible power of today’s supercomputers, many complex computing problems cannot be addressed by conventional systems,” D-Wave noted in its documentation for the D-Wave 2000Q. “The huge growth of data and our need to better understand everything from the universe to our own DNA leads us to seek new tools that can help provide answers. Quantum computing is the next frontier in computing, providing an entirely new approach to solving the world’s most difficult challenges.”
Enabling such computing requires an extremely controlled environment. D-Wave said its new machine’s quantum processing unit, or QPU, needs to operate at a temperature close to absolute zero,…