IBM Osprey Processor Brings 433 Qubits to Power Modular Quantum Supercomputers

IBM is one of the frontiers for using the natural properties of quantum particles to process the information on an enterprise scale. With constant advances in quantum information processing, the company is using newly found discoveries to double the size of its quantum processors. Using quantum properties instead of the conventional on/off switching of bits in the regular processors, quantum processors can process the information on a much larger scale. Last year, IBM unveiled the Eagle quantum processor with 127 qubits. This year, the company is bringing in 433 qubits to the table to power the next generation of enterprise and data center infrastructure.

Called IBM Osprey, it features IBM’s 433 qubits cooled to cryogenic temperatures and in a controlled environment. While the computational power of the processor seems to be rather impressive, it is still a noisy quantum implementation that is sensitive to outside noise and requires exceptionally low temperatures to operate, such as -273 Degrees Celcius. To combat some of those obstacles, Osprey adds multi-level wiring to provide flexibility for signal routing and device layout while also adding integrated filtering to reduce noise and improve stability. Concurrently, IBM developed new signal delivery wiring that is 70% cheaper and produces the same result, driving up the ability to commercialize this design. For performance, IBM managed to increase quantum volume four times from 128 to 512 and a 10x improvement in Driving quantum performance from 1.4k to 15k Circuit Layer Operations Per Second (CLOPS).

Interestingly, the company has been teasing the shipment of its modular system called IBM Quantum System Two, which is supposed to be unveiled during Quantum Summit 2023 next year. In the video below, we can see a preview of the overall infrastructure and its ability to deploy additional hardware using cryostats and long-range couplers for processor interconnection.