重大突破！IBM宣布推出世界上第一個商用「通用」量子計算服務

2017年3月6日 作者Bob Yirka

IBM已經宣布準備開始提供世界上第一個商業通用量子計算服務（稱為IBM Q），該系統將在今年晚些時候提供給那些希望使用它的用戶。 新系統將建立在IBM的Quantum Experience上，這是一個軟體開發平台，供對此感興趣的程序員和開發人員來設計和構建實際的基於量子的應用程序。

量子計算機是全新而獨特的，還在早期發展階段。 它們使用量子位而不是我們都知道的數字0和1，所以估計有一天能夠解決現在無法解決的問題或運行如今看似不可能的應用程序。IBM的團隊建議大家設想一下，一如果台計算機，可以忠實地模擬自然的幾乎無限多種交互和關係，將會多麼神奇！

作為IBM Q的推出的一部分，IBM還將發布用於Quantum Experience的新API和升級的模擬器。 今年晚些時候，公司還將發布一個完整的SDK。 該公司希望它能幫助世界各地的程序員以全新的方式學習代碼，這將帶來前所未有的新型軟體應用程序能，讓我們夠利用通用量子計算機的獨特能力。

IBM開始銷售量子計算服務的同時，公司仍將繼續開發量子計算硬體作為其系統的核心。 他們設定了在未來幾年內建立50-qubit（量子比特）系統的目標。 然而，他們沒有公布客戶在系統上線時可以期望的量子量 - 當前Quantum Experience用戶可以訪問5量子比特計算。 該公司採用了將量子位與超導電路結合的方法，將其保持在剛好高於絕對零度的溫度。

在其公告中，IBM相信客戶（或學術界）將樂於使用Quantum Experience這一量子程序去構建自己的應用程序，然後通過IBM Q雲端執行它們。他們注意到，Quantum Experience剛剛啟動不到一年，但已經有超過4萬名用戶構建並運行了275,000個測試應用程序，迄今為止已經產生了15篇研究論文。

IBM has announced its plans to begin offering the world"s first commercial universal quantum-computing service—called IBM Q, the system will be made available to those who wish to use it for a fee sometime later this year. The new system will build on IBM"s Quantum Experience, a software development platform for programmers and developers interested in designing and building actual quantum-based applications.

Quantum computers are new and different, and still very much under development. They run using quantum bits rather than the digital 0s and 1s we all know so well, and are therefore expected one day to be capable of solving problems or running applications that today are impossible. Imagine, the team at IBM suggests, a computer that could faithfully model nature in its nearly infinite variety of interactions and relationships.

As part of the roll out of IBM Q, IBM will also release a new API for Quantum Experience and an upgraded simulator. Later this year, the company will also release a full SDK. The company expects it to help programmers around the world learn to code in a whole new way that will result in unprecedented software applications able to take advantage of the unique abilities of a universal quantum computer.

Even as IBM begins selling quantum computing services, the company will continue to develop the quantum computing hardware at the core of its system. They have set a goal of building a 50-qubit system over the next few years. However, they have not revealed the quantum volume customers can expect when the system goes online—current Quantum Experience users have access to 5 qubit computing. The company has embraced the approach of incorporating qubits with superconducting circuits by keeping them at temperatures just above absolute zero.

In its announcement, IBM suggests it believes customers (or academics) will want to use Quantum Experience to build their own applications using quantum programming, which will then execute via the cloud on IBM Q. They note that Quantum Experience was launched just less than a year ago, but already over 40,000 users have built and run 275,000 test applications and 15 research papers have resulted thus far.

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