IBM has announced its ambitious plan to develop the world's first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The IBM Quantum Starling is set to be operational by 2029 at a new data center in Poughkeepsie, New York. This quantum computer is expected to perform operations 20,000 times faster than current models.
The computational state of the IBM Starling would require more memory than that available from a quindecillion of today's most powerful supercomputers. "IBM is charting the next frontier in quantum computing," stated Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM. He emphasized the company's commitment to leveraging expertise across mathematics, physics, and engineering for this endeavor.
IBM's Quantum Roadmap outlines their strategy for building a practical fault-tolerant quantum computer. Such computers could revolutionize fields like drug development and materials discovery by running hundreds of millions to billions of operations efficiently.
The Starling will utilize 200 logical qubits to perform 100 million quantum operations. It will lay the groundwork for IBM Quantum Blue Jay, which aims to execute one billion operations over 2,000 logical qubits.
Logical qubits are error-corrected units composed of multiple physical qubits working together. They allow for greater operation numbers with reduced error rates compared to individual physical qubits.
The architecture required for a large-scale fault-tolerant system must be modular and efficient enough to handle complex algorithms using realistic resources. IBM has introduced two technical papers detailing how they plan to achieve this using qLDPC codes and efficient error decoding methods.
IBM's roadmap includes several key milestones: the IBM Quantum Loon in 2025, designed for testing architecture components; the IBM Quantum Kookaburra in 2026, intended as their first modular processor; and the IBM Quantum Cockatoo in 2027, which will link multiple modules together.
These developments aim toward realizing Starling by 2029. For further details on scaling fault tolerance, interested parties can access additional resources through IBM's blog and video content.
For media inquiries, contact Erin Angelini or Brittany Forgione at IBM Communications via email provided in the original release.