Quantum computing: Qubits are the new space race

A quantum computer is dramatically different from the computers we have – our laptops, desktops and smartphones.

Wiping our shoes, we enter a sparkling glass-walled room with vibration-absorbent floors and separate dedicated earthing. A cylinder hangs in the middle with gold-plated copper layers sitting inside a dilution refrigerator. Wires, cables, monitors and pipes emerge in and out of the cylinder like an organised Hydra. Some pipes go into two other rooms – one houses the compressed helium, the other one the invertor. The cables go into racks that further feed into computers . A loud cling-cling sound

The IBM Quantum System Two quantum computer. (AFP)