New state of matter powers Microsoft quantum computing chip
Microsoft says its researchers have created a new quantum computer processor that relies on a never-before-seen state of matter. The technological leap—called Majorana 1—represents a major step forward towards an era of powerful quantum computers that unlock currently unachievable advancements across artificial intelligence, medical research, sustainable energy, and many other industries.
Since their invention, traditional computers have almost always relied on semiconductor chips that use binary “bits” of information represented as strings of 1’s and 0’s. While these chips have become increasingly powerful and simultaneously smaller, there is a physical limit to the amount of information that can be stored on this hardware. Quantum computers, by comparison, utilize “qubits” (quantum bits) to exploit the strange properties exhibited by subatomic particles, often at extremely cold temperatures.
Two qubits can hold four values at any given time, with more qubits translating to an exponential increase in calculating capabilities. This allows a quantum computer to process information at speeds and scales that make today’s supercomputers seem almost antiquated. Last December, for example, Google unveiled an experimental quantum computer system that researchers say takes just five minutes to finish a calculation that would take most supercomputers over 10 septillion years to complete—longer than the age of the universe as we understand it.
But Google’s Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) is based on different technology than Microsoft’s Majorana 1 design, detailed in a paper published on February 19 in the journal Nature. The result of over 17 years of design and research, Majorana 1 relies on what the company calls “topological qubits” through the creation of topological superconductivity, a state of matter previously conceptualized but never documented.
Instead of a traditional computer’s reliance on electrons, Majorana 1 works on the “world’s first topoconductor,” using the Majorana particle first described in 1937 by theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana. According to Microsoft, the machine is based on “gate-defined devices” combining the semiconductor indium arsenide with aluminum, a superconductor. Once the topoconductor’s temperature is lowered to near absolute zero (about -400 degrees Fahrenheit) and tuned to magnetic fields, the devices “form topological superconducting nanowires with Majorana Zero Modes (MZMs) at the wires’ ends.”
Majorana 1 is reportedly more reliable than competitor Quantum Processing Unit designs, but it still exhibits a problem that plagues all experimental quantum computing chips. Just as it’s illustrated in quantum particle physics, qubits may be able to hold two states of information at the same time,but when human operators attempt to read them, the information “decoheres” into a basic 1 or 0. Microsoft researchers, however, are pinning their hopes that further fine-tuning will yield more reliable and scalable topoconductors that ultimately form the basis of the first true quantum computers. Majorana 1 currently holds just eight qubits, which doesn’t set it apart from existing QPU prototypes. But it’s built to house many more: 1 million qubits, to be more exact.
“A million-qubit quantum computer isn’t just a milestone—it’s a gateway to solving some of the world’s most difficult problems,” Chetan Nayak, Microsoft’s Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President of Quantum Hardware, said on Wednesday.
