IBM, to explore the potential of quantum computing, is joining hands with a German research institute with the support of German government’s plan of investing 650 million euros ($717 million) in time span of two years to widen the research in the field of quantum computing.
Berlin made the commitment of supporting the research work by signing a project deal at the end of a meeting last week between Chancellor Angela Merkel and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty as Germany is seeking coming up to the United States and China in a global race around advanced technologies.
In collaboration with the Fraunhofer Society – an institute which researches on applied sciences- , IBM will install a Q System One of its quantum computer at one of its facilities in Germany to form a research unit and community around it.
Quantum computers have the ability to operate at speeds that are millions times more than that of advanced supercomputers have today. Technology of the quantum computers is based on quantum bits, or qubits, which can be superposed on each other that exponentially increase the amount of data to be processed. Processing capacity of IBM’s current Q System One machine is 20 qubits.
The recent effort is definitely proved to be the major milestone towards the research capabilities and innovation landscape of Europe, said Martin Jetter, senior vice president and chairman of IBM Europe.
The quantum computer will be shipped to Germany and will be set up next year, which will be IBM’s first deployment of quantum computer outside of the United States. Meanwhile, researchers in Germany will be provided with an access to Q Network, a quantum computing research forum of IBM in the United States.
Building a research community around that quantum computing project has the prospective of creating a unique focus of skills, which will be similar to the beginnings of Silicon Valley in the United States, Jetter told Reuters.
