Dwave Quantum Annealing 1000 qubit chip and other improvements

Wired provides a thorough history of the Dwave Quantum Annealing Computer but also provides an update on the 1000 qubit processor and improvements to the system.

Dwave’s 512 qubit chip was tested as being 3600 times faster than some off the shelf optimizer software on a regular workstation and even with a customized optimizing algorithm.

What about Dwave’s speed issues? “Calibration errors,” Geordie Rose (CTO of Dwave) says. Programming a problem into the D-Wave is a manual process, tuning each qubit to the right level on the problem-solving landscape. If you don’t set those dials precisely right, “you might be specifying the wrong problem on the chip,” Rose says. As for noise, he admits it’s still an issue, but the next chip—the 1,000-qubit version codenamed Washington, coming out this fall—will reduce noise yet more. DWave plans to replace the niobium loops with aluminum to reduce oxide buildup. “I don’t care if you build [a traditional computer] the size of the moon with interconnection at the speed of light, running the best algorithm that Google has ever come up with. It won’t matter, ’cause this thing will still kick your ass,” Rose says. Then he backs off a bit. “OK, everybody wants to get to that point—and Washington’s not gonna get us there. But Washington is a step in that direction.”

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