Microsoft unveiled a new type of computing chip on Wednesday that will specifically help enable advancements in practical, fault-tolerant quantum computing.
The chip, called Majorana 1, is the world’s first quantum chip powered by a specific Topological Core architecture. The proprietary technology is designed to leverage Majorana particles to create robust topological qubits that are resilient to external errors, often referred to as “noise.”
“In a regular chip the computation is done using electrons. We don’t use electrons. We use majoranas for computing. It’s [an] entirely new particle, it’s half electron.”
The detection of Majorana particles is key to the function of Microsoft’s new chip, as the particles are notoriously elusive. Microsoft’s technology measures the presence of Majorana particles to act as reliable and scalable qubits.
“The goal was to coax new quantum particles called Majoranas into existence and take advantage of their unique properties to reach the next horizon of quantum computing,” Microsoft said in the release.
Microsoft went on to say its Majorana 1 is the world’s first topoconductor, a chip combining topological qubits with superconductor properties. It is physically created by stacking two materials — indium arsenide and aluminum –– which researchers at Microsoft designed and fabricated “atom by atom” to eventually scale to a million functional qubits on one chip.
A qubit is the data type that a quantum computer is able to process. Unlike a standard bit that acts as foundation for modern computing, a qubit would be able to capture more detail in the data it is processing by operating beyond the binary of 0 and 1.
Generally, the more qubits a quantum computer can process means it can handle a larger volume of data and develop more advanced computational outputs. However, other factors, like how well qubits function together, dictate how stable and readable they are.
“Whatever you’re doing in the quantum space needs to have a path to a million qubits. If it doesn’t, you’re going to hit a wall before you get to the scale at which you can solve the really important problems that motivate us,” Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft technical fellow said in the press release. “We have actually worked out a path to a million.”
Despite the progress in constructing a new type of superconducting chip, the larger infrastructure challenges to scaling a quantum computer remain. Dilution refrigerators to ensure the computer doesn’t overheat, along with proper fibre optic cabling and continued material science research, are still ongoing for a fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of executing cryptographic operations.
“To be clear, continuing to refine those processes and getting all the elements to work together at accelerated scale [sic] will require more years of engineering work. But many difficult scientific and engineering challenges have now been met,” Microsoft said.
Microsoft has been working extensively on quantum computing research and partnerships, recently being selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. The company also recently unveiled new quantum computing capabilities for its Azure cloud services.
