At CES 2019, IBM unveiled the world’s first quantum computer for commercial use. The company calls it “IBM Q System One” and it is designed to solve problems that are currently seen as too complex and exponential in nature.
The system includes a nine-foot-tall, nine-foot-wide case of half-inch thick borosilicate glass and is a 20-qubit quantum computer. The system relies on qubits and needs a cold and stable environment to work. The IBM system has its own Quantum firmware that will manage the system health and enable system upgrades without downtime.
IBM Q System One combines classical and quantum computing elements into a single architecture. It has the ability to auto-calibrate in order to provide repeatable and predictable high-quality qubits. The Cryogenic engineering delivers a continuous cold and isolated quantum environment, and Classical computation
IBM has no plans to sell it but it will allow business to pay and use it over the IBM Q Network for commercial applications. The company has not confirmed how much it costs to get access.
IBM also announced that it will open a new IBM Q Quantum Computation Center later in 2019. This centre will expand the capabilities of IBM’s Q Network commercial quantum computing program.
