Featured in this episode of Chaos Lever
Intel is going quantum. Their new processor, named “Tunnel Falls” for some reason, brings them into the commercial quantum computing race with a 12-qubit chip.
This is way behind companies like IBM, which already have 127 qubit systems available to researchers. Still, the chip is a significant step forward for Intel, which has been working on quantum computing for several years.
Interestingly, the chip is using older electron-based technology that has been powering x86 CPUs for ages. This is in stark contrast to the superconducting designs that IBM uses. Even though the number of qubits is low, it’s the first commercial Intel processor that can be used to run real-world quantum algorithms, and they hope that the existing tech and fabrication plants will enable faster evolution of their available offerings.
Intel plans to continue developing its quantum computing technology and hopes to have “a few thousand” qubits within the next 5 years.