Microsoft has unveiled a new quantum computer chip. How does it work and will it transform technology?
By Ellen Phiddian
ABC Science
Topic:Computer Science
Fri 21 FebFriday 21 February
Microsoft says its new Majorana quantum chip will transform computing. (Supplied: Microsoft/John Brecher)
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Microsoft has just announced a chip that it claims will "redefine" how quantum computing works.
The company claims its "topological superconductor" could see a useful quantum computer in "years, not decades".
Their innovation was published this week in the journal Nature.
So how much of an advance is Microsoft's technology — and what does this mean for quantum computing in Australia?
Remind me, what is a quantum computer?
Quantum computers promise to solve certain problems exponentially faster than traditional computers, allowing them to revolutionise fields from medicine to freight logistics.
Just as traditional computers operate on bits of information, quantum computers run on qubits.
Microsoft unveils chip it claims puts quantum computers just 'years away'
Photo shows close up of computer chip with word majorana 1 next to it
Quantum computing holds the promise of carrying out calculations that would take today's systems millions of years.
Qubits can be made out of lots of different things, and companies have seen success by stringing several different types of qubits together into quantum computers.
These computers aren't yet usable for the high-tech applications they promise. The tiniest of changes in the surrounding environment can cause the qubits to make huge numbers of errors.
This is called noise.
Quantum computer developers have been working on several different ways to address noise. Google, for instance, announced late last year it'd made a big step forward in an error correction technique that involved using lots of qubits to compensate for errors.
Unlike several of its competitors, which are already announcing computers with more than 100 qubits, Microsoft has not yet made a single qubit with its technology.
But if its new material pans out, it would be much more resistant to noise than any other technique in the running.
How does the new technology work?
Microsoft's topological superconductor revolves around the idea of "Majorana particles".
Quantum physicists have long proposed the existence of Majorana particles, according to Robert Malaney, a quantum physicist at the University of New South Wales.
The theoretical subatomic particles, first proposed by by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in the 1930s, are a type of neutrino, which have a zero charge.
"What Microsoft has been trying to do for a long time is engineer a quasi-particle that would have the same mathematical properties as those Majorana neutrinos," Professor Malaney says.
If it could be created, this material would be a new phase of matter — not solid, liquid, or gas — but something that adhered to different physical rules.
Microsoft has been developing the technology for more than a decade. (AP)
David Reilly, a University of Sydney quantum physicist who has worked for Microsoft on the research and is a co-author on the Nature paper, says such a material offers a hybrid between two much-prized materials in computing: semiconductors and superconductors.
Semiconductors, upon which all computers are built, are materials which conduct electricity sometimes, meaning they can be used as switches. Superconductors, meanwhile, can conduct electricity without any resistance.
"Hybrid systems that combine superconductivity with the ability to switch a device from being an insulator to a conductor are very interesting for a lots of different potential devices," Professor Reilly says.
Is Microsoft's development really a huge leap?
The current announcement demonstrates an important — but not conclusive — step towards the material that could make super-robust qubits, Professor Reilly says.
"I think we don't know yet whether you can build a qubit out of these materials."
Stephen Bartlett, a quantum physicist at the University of Sydney, says the announcement is "exciting", but the topological qubit Microsoft is hunting doesn't yet exist.
"The [new paper] demonstrates one component that you would need for such a computer, which is how they can measure that topological qubit if they exist.
"But they have not put out any demonstration of that technology yet."
Microsoft has been publicly working on this idea for more than a decade with a number of different research institutions. Much of the initial research came from Australia and the University of Sydney.
Professor Malaney describes the announcement as a "breakthrough of sorts".
"If it's all true, and they can really engineer the system to a much larger scale, then everyone does realise that their form of qubits are more stable than everyone else's."
But he says there's a long way to go before it becomes a real quantum computer.
Will this bring us a quantum computer soon?
Once Microsoft can solve all of the fundamental physics problems in making a topological superconductor, it then has a mountain of engineering problems to solve.
Even if it can make a qubit with its material, Professor Reilly says moving further than that isn't an easy task.
"You have to still connect that system to readout devices and electronics and all the other auxiliary necessary, controlled elements."
PsiQuantum received $1b for a quantum computer. So what will it do?
Photo shows A rendering of PsiQuantum's Brisbane quantum computer
Australia is making a billion-dollar bet on a "useful" quantum computer in the Queensland capital, but surprisingly few experts agree on what the nation will get in return.
If all of that can be achieved, he says there's no guarantee a qubit built out of these materials would be as competitive as theory suggests.
"I think we don't yet know, even if you could build a qubit, what its performance would be and whether these theoretical properties carry forward into true implementation."
He thinks the field of quantum computing in general is moving quickly, citing Google's recent error-correction achievement as an example.
Other companies, such as PsiQuantum, have promised usable quantum computers by the end of the decade.
But Microsoft's approach — focusing as it does on fundamental physics — is difficult to predict.
Professor Malaney thinks that a usable quantum computer is still many years away.
"I think it's just another exciting development in this whole area, that tells me that eventually somebody somewhere is going to actually build a real quantum computer," he says.
What role does Australia play in quantum computing?
Professor Malaney says this research doesn't change Australia's bets on quantum computing.
"I don't believe that the winner has been declared because of this paper."
Australia is betting big on quantum science and quantum computing, with a billion-dollar investment in PsiQuantum's Brisbane-based computer, and the National Quantum Strategy funnelling money to other ventures.
Much of the initial research that Microsoft has based its quantum computing strategy on has come out of the University of Sydney.
But last year, Professor Reilly and his team declined Microsoft's offer to relocate to the US, instead setting up a new company that aims not to make a computer, but supplement the system with more research.
"We really see I think potential to have a have a much broader impact and remain in Australia," Professor Reilly says.
The University of New South Wales, meanwhile, has been home to another branch of quantum computing, developing the first single-atom transistors.
A company started at UNSW, Silicon Quantum Computing, is promising "useful" quantum computing solutions by 2030.
For now, the race towards a useful quantum computer remains an open question.
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