At the Build conference for developers held in San Francisco, in addition to the first code generation model, Microsoft also presented a new quantum processor – Majorana 2. The company claims that the reliability of this generation is more than a thousand times better than the previous chip, which could bring quantum computers closer to solving practical business problems.
The basis of the operation of quantum computers are qubits, which in theory could perform calculations unattainable by classical computers. The problem is that qubits are extremely sensitive and unstable. Microsoft states that qubits on the Majorana 2 chip can survive for an average of 20 seconds, while the previous generation’s qubits lasted less than 12 milliseconds.
Majorana 2 aims for more stable quantum processing
Microsoft compares this to the difference between a phone that has to be charged every day and a device that would run for years without charging. However, the road to a useful quantum machine is still very long. Majorana 2 currently has 12 qubits, while a commercially usable quantum computer would have to use millions of qubits.
Zulfi Alam, vice president of the Microsoft quantum division, said that the company plans to have a quantum computer capable of solving business-relevant problems by 2029. Such a goal is ambitious, especially since the industry does not yet have a widely accepted proof of a scalable quantum system that can perform practically useful calculations.
For about 20 years now, Microsoft has been developing a topological approach to building quantum computers, based on the properties of Majorana quasiparticles. It is a theoretical concept that originates from the works of the Italian physicist Ettore Majorano from the thirties of the last century. The company claims that this very direction is the key to more stable qubits and future machines that are more fault-tolerant.
The biggest change with the Majorana 2 chip is related to the material. While Google, IBM and other manufacturers mostly use aluminum superconductors, Microsoft is switching to lead, a material with larger atoms. Jason Zander from Microsoft states that the production process was extremely demanding, but that the team managed to overcome it.
Microsoft submitted the results to the US agency DARPA for evaluation, including commercially sensitive data. If the claims are confirmed, the company could move from a relatively passive position to a prime candidate for the next generation of fault-tolerant quantum computers.
However, caution remains necessary. Qubits are so sensitive that even the slightest temperature changes or vibrations can cause errors. That’s why Majorana 2 seems like an important step forward, but not as definitive proof that practically usable quantum computers for complex calculations are really close.