IBM Expanding Reach of Its Quantum Hardware by Physically Bringing Its Quantum Computers to Customers

(ZDNet) IBM has unveiled a brand-new quantum computer in Japan, thousands of miles away from the company’s quantum computation center in Poughkeepsie, New York, in another step towards bringing quantum technologies out of Big Blue’s labs and directly to partners around the world.
Recently, the company unveiled the very first quantum computer that was physically built outside of the computation center’s data centers, when the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany acquired a System One. The system deployed to Japan is therefore IBM’s second quantum computer that is located outside of the US.
Big Blue and the University of Tokyo launched the Quantum Innovation Initiative Consortium last year to further bring together organizations working in the field of quantum. With this, the Japanese government has made it clear that it is keen to be at the forefront of the promising developments that quantum technologies are expected to bring about.
Building and controlling the components of quantum computers is a huge challenge, which has so far been limited to the confines of specialist laboratories such as IBM’s Poughkeepsie computation center.
It is significant, therefore, that IBM’s Quantum System One is now mature enough to be deployed outside of the company’s lab. “Thousands of meticulously engineered components have to work together flawlessly in extreme temperatures within astonishing tolerances,” said IBM in a blog post.