IBM presented the first commercial quantum computer, the IBM Q System One, at the Consumer electronics show (Ces) in Las Vegas. The American computer giant defines it as the first "integrated and universal quantum computing system designed for scientific research and commercial use". IBM has also indicated that this year it will open its first Q Quantum computation center in Poughkeepsie, New York: here IBM's commercial customers will be able to use the new quantum brain on the IBM cloud.



IBM Q systems are designed to tackle and solve problems that are too complex today and require calculation capacity and speed that are not accessible to classic systems, explains Ibm. Future quantum computing applications include the discovery of new methods to create financial models and isolate global risk factors to design safer investments or to find optimal paths on a global scale for more efficient logistics systems.



Quantum computers exploit the laws of physics and quantum mechanics for data processing. Their fundamental unit is the qubit, able to carry out the calculations simultaneously thanks to the superposition of quantum states. This may allow us to overcome the limits of Moore's law: there is a threshold below which it is difficult to continue the miniaturization and density of the components and meanwhile continue to multiply the power of calculation.

IBM Q System One was designed by IBM scientists and engineers and allows, for the first time, to bring quantum computers out of the labs and use them for commercial applications. It incorporates a series of custom components such as quantum hardware to produce quality qubits, cryogenic engineering, to keep the quantum environment isolated, cooled, high precision electronics, quantum firmware for management and automatic updates without interrupting operation and even classical computing to provide secure access to the cloud and hybrid implementation of quantum algorithms.

The integrated systems studied by Ibm intend to solve one of the most complex aspects of quantum computing: maintaining the quality of qubits. The qubits are powerful but delicate, explains Ibm: they quickly lose their special quantum qualities (in about 100 microseconds) due to factors such as vibrations and fluctuations in ambient temperature and electromagnetic waves.

The IBM Q Quantum Computation Center, which will open in Poughkeepsie in the second half of the year, expands its already active Ibm Q Network quantum computing program. Poughkeepsie will host some of the most advanced cloud-based quantum systems, which will be open to members of the IBM Q Network.

The first prototype of quantum computer was made in 1997 by Ibm in its research center in Almaden (San Jose, California); in 2001 the same Almaden research center announced the first 7 qubit quantum computer. The one presented today is a 20-qubit computer, not yet a supercomputer but still able to inactivate the new era of computing. In the laboratories IBM has come to simulate the operation of the quantum computer at 56 qubits, a level considered by supercomputer.



The IT giant today is no longer the only player of quantum computing: the main competitor (excluding the pure university research centers) is Google, which announced that it has built in its Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, in California a quantum computer processor from 72 qubits.