Intel’s CTO Believes Ten Years to Widespread Quantum Computing–But Admits “Error Bar” in Estimation

(WSJ) Intel’s CTO Mike Mayberry believes widespread use of quantum computing use is about ten years away, although he qualifies there may be a “pretty big error” bar in that estimation. He pointed out there are people that will say, “Well, we’ll have systems sooner than that,” and he agrees but says today’s systems are not necessarily big enough to solve the kinds of problems that people are really interested in doing. The simulation of a drug molecule will need qubits in the millions. Today the best way to figure out if a drug works is to make the drug and test it. When we’re successful with quantum computing, we can start to simulate things that we can only do experiments on today. That will accelerate the rate that we can look through different materials. That doesn’t guarantee we’ll have a better material, but it helps the front end of the process.
Intel’s CTO Mayberry spoke about a wide assortment of emerging technologies in this interview with the WSJ
(NOTE: Paywall).