Nov. 15, 2021 — IBM today announced a 127-quantum bit (qubit) ‘Eagle’ processor at the IBM Quantum Summit 2021. The company said the processor is a significant step toward tapping into the massive computing potential of devices based on quantum physics and “heralds the point in hardware development where quantum circuits cannot be reliably simulated exactly on a classical computer.”
IBM also previewed plans for IBM Quantum System Two, the next generation of quantum systems.
IBM said‘Eagle is IBM’s first quantum processor to contain more than 100 operational and connected qubits. It follows IBM’s 65-qubit ‘Hummingbird’ processor unveiled in 2020 and the 27-qubit ‘Falcon’ processor unveiled in 2019.
The chip builds on work done in developing IBM’s existing quantum processors, such as a qubit arrangement design to reduce errors and an architecture to reduce the number of necessary components. The new techniques within Eagle place control wiring on multiple physical levels within the processor while keeping the qubits on a single layer, which enables an increase in qubits, while maintaining a high level of quality, according to the company.
IBM said Eagle is the first IBM quantum processor whose scale makes it impossible for a classical computer to reliably simulate. The number of classical bits necessary to represent a state on the 127-qubit processor exceeds the total number of atoms in the more than 7.5 billion people alive today.
“The arrival of the Eagle processor is a major step forward to the day when quantum computers can outperform classical computers for useful applications,” said Dr. Darío Gil, Senior Vice President, IBM and Director of Research. “Quantum computing has the power to transform nearly every sector and help us tackle the biggest problems of our time. This is why IBM continues to rapidly innovate quantum hardware and software design, building ways for quantum and classical workloads to empower each other, and create a global ecosystem that is imperative to the growth of a quantum industry.”
The first ‘Eagle’ processor is available as an exploratory device on the IBM Cloud to select members of the IBM Quantum Network.
