back to article IBM takes a crack at 'utility scale' quantum processing with Heron processor

IBM has unveiled the Heron – a quantum processor it claims has achieved "utility scale" – and a so-called modular System Two architecture that will employ it in production. Heron is the latest installment in IBM's series of quantum processing units (QPUs). The device features 133 qubits – up from the 127 in the previous model …

  1. HuBo Silver badge
    Happy

    Yummy!

    I love that delicious 2025 laughing kookaburra kingfisher name for their quantum chip ... quite unusual!

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Yummy!

      IBM seem to be telling us their processors are bird-brains. And did nobody tell them the chief characteristic of a heron is that it just stand still for long periods of time doing nothing.

  2. seven of five Silver badge

    Plus ca change

    And soon, we have mainframes again. Funny thing IBM will build them. I wonder what happens to the young ones designing these new machines when they have become greybeards themselves.

  3. ArrZarr Silver badge
    Windows

    Of all the fields of scientific progress and achievement, I don't think I'll ever be able to stop believing that quantum computing is witchcraft.

    It always reminds me of Discworld passages where a bit of misdirection or trickery is directed at the universe as a whole and works. For a while, at least.

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Eh, it's not that weird. I like the Aaronson / SMBC collaboration The Talk as a relatively quick introduction.

      (It's funny, too. "Wait, you guys put complex numbers in your ontologies?" "We do, and we like it." "Ewww.")

      But basically, if you understand constructive and destructive interference, and can wrap your head around the idea of probabilities as complex unit vectors (which are easy to visualize — just think of the hour hand on an analog clock) rather than real numbers, you pretty much have the foundation of QC. OK, "basically" is doing some heavy lifting there, but really the interference thing is easy to grasp and that gets you halfway there.

      1. ArrZarr Silver badge

        I can get my head around it, but that doesn't stop me feeling like we're exploiting a loophole in the laws of physics that's about to get patched!

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