This week, IBM announced plans to offer commercial quantum machines to businesses and research organizations within the year. IBM Q is an API that allows users access to IBM Quantum Experience (QE), its quantum computing cloud that was earlier restricted to a smaller set of users. This move will allow users to conduct experiments and run algorithms to ascertain the potential of quantum computing for themselves.
Quantum computing aims to help tackle problems that traditional computers are unable to take on, such as when data patterns are invisible, and the scale of the exploration task is insurmountable.
Arvind Krishna, SVP of Hybrid Cloud and Director for IBM Research said:
IBM has invested over decades to growing the field of quantum computing and we are committed to expanding access to quantum systems and their powerful capabilities for the science and business communities the IBM Cloud platform, and promises to be the next major technology that has.
Following Watson and blockchain, we believe that quantum computing will provide the next powerful set of services delivered via the potential to drive a new era of innovation across industries.
Earlier, Nature reported that within the next five years, Google will produce a viable quantum computer, as researchers from Google’s Quantum AI Laboratory told the world that a machine leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics will soon outperform traditional computers on certain tasks.