https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/04/tech/honeywell-quantum-computer/index.html
This line in particular struck me:
Quantum computers can process data at a fraction of the speed of normal computers,
I’m pretty sure that’s not what they are trying to say.
It’s far from the worst lite-news summary of QC I’ve seen, but it’s certainly not accurate.
Re: Honeywell, I remember when they were hiring a while ago. Interesting to see that their trapped ion has advanced enough that they’re announcing now. Traditionally the worry about trapped ions is the scalability with all the lasers and whatnot, but it’s been a while since I really got into it, and I never followed the details super closely.
The funny thing about this is that they got to the highest announced quantum volume with a grand total of six qubits. That means any problem that it can actually solve is well within the range of what can be simulated much more rapidly on a conventional computer.
Those six qubits do appear to be of higher quality than the 54 superconducting junction qubits that were in Google’s quantum supremacy machine, but six doesn’t really turn heads nowadays.
That’s generally expected for ion trap qubits, it’s connecting them that’s tricky. I haven’t read much about the Honeywell computer but I’m surprised it’s only six; academic groups have done at least 14 ion qubits iirc.