In October 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden visited a quantum computer in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The gorgeous contraption had been built by the high-tech company IBM. Like a futuristic sculpture, it had complex curves of gold tubes and wires.
Photos of the visit show Biden studying the machinery. But anyone looking at those photos might wonder: How is this thing a computer?
The temperature inside the machine, called IBM Quantum System One, is almost unfathomably cold. It’s a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, which is the coldest possible temperature. IBM has installed Quantum System One machines in many places around the world. Some of them are encased in the same kind of glass used to protect Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
At absolute zero, everything stops moving. And quantum computing can take place only at a sliver of a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. The golden sculpture-looking part of Quantum System One is what keeps the computing part so cold.
“Any time you google ‘quantum computer,’ the pictures that come up are these big beautiful golden chandeliers,” said Corban Tillemann-Dick. He founded Maybell Quantum Industries in Denver, Colo. He spoke there about these quantum machines last February. It was at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Looking at those photos, “I get kind of amused,” he said. “They think they’re standing next to a quantum computer. But really that chandelier is the fridge.”
The part that solves computing problems sits on a piece of silicon at the bottom of the contraption. It’s so small it could fit in your hand. Tillemann-Dick should know. He designs and builds ways to keep those quantum devices cold. (He jokes that he’s a high-tech refrigerator salesman.)
Tech companies — including IBM, Microsoft, Google and others — are racing to build the best quantum computer. Why? Their scientists think these devices will…
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