(FinancialReview) Governments seeking to promote quantum computing should invest in the hardware, the workforce and the science, said Dr. Jay Gambetta, IBM’s research vice-president of quantum computing. Dr. Gambetta was presenting at a joint announcement from a IBM-Melbourne University research team that had created some of the largest quantum entanglement states of their kind in the world.
Gambetta explained that quantum computing has reached an important stage whereby applications and algorithms could be developed on quantum computers rather than simulated on classical computers. For businesses, this meant there would begin to be specialist areas to which domain experts could begin to apply the power of quantum computing. Simulating quantum physics is very important for many, many industries, be it material science, chemistry, even understanding how certain things will react.
Dr. Gambetta said that governments investing their money to help develop the quantum ecosystem is very important. “I see it as very important that it’s this combination of government, industry and, and the academic for us to accelerate quantum computing,” Dr Gambetta said.
The Melbourne University research team led by Dr Charles Hill used IBM quantum processors to entangle all the qubits of a 27-qubit chip and a 65-qubit processor. Until now, users have only been able to work with a few qubits at a time. Being able to entangle more qubits allows exploration of the incredibly complex calculations quantum promises.
Dr Hill pointed out that Australia already has serious capability in the quantum area. His observations follow an announcement Australia is investing in a $70 million commercialisation hub for quantum. The federal government is also developing a quantum strategy based on the road map released by CSIRO last year.