To become proficient with the quantum supercomputer, check out Microsoft's roadmap

Microsoft has declared its intent to build a custom quantum supercomputer. The company's plan, made available to the public on Wednesday, claims that quantum supercomputers might revolutionize chemistry, lessen food shortages, and fight climate change. When a quantum computer achieves several milestones, such as the change from noisy physical qubits to dependable logical qubits, it may be able to "solve the most complex problems facing our society."

According to Microsoft, the path to quantum computing is similar to today's conventional supercomputers. In light of this, the industry has identified three key milestones to reach before programmable quantum supercomputers can handle problems beyond the scope of existing quantum technology.

Test machines are currently constructed with "noisy" physical qubits that are not advantageous enough to solve actual problems, so the development is now at the foundational level. Quantum bits are analogous to bits in conventional computers for the uninitiated.

Azure Quantum Elements is the result of Microsoft's integration of these machines, which include IonQ, Pasqal, Quantinuum, QCI, and Rigetti, among others. Azure Quantum Elements's brand-new service incorporates the most recent developments in high-performance computing (HPC) to accelerate scientific discovery.

The development of quantum computing will progress to the resilient level once individual qubit reliability is improved. When it is possible to combine thousands of physical qubits into a logical qubit, this stage has been reached. However, physical qubit error rates must be below a certain threshold for error correction to work.

When it is possible to engineer a scaled, programmable quantum supercomputer that can solve problems better than classical supercomputers, we have reached level three.

Much work must be done before quantum computers reach their full potential. An error rate of one for every trillion operations will be required for the first quantum supercomputer. The trailblazers of early registering needed to conquer comparable deterrents in progress, from vacuum cylinders to semiconductors to coordinated circuits.

However, Microsoft faces numerous rivals in the race for supercomputers, including IBM and IonQ, whose goals are comparable to Microsoft's. However, the company may have a slight advantage due to its significant breakthrough last year. Its team demonstrated that Majorana particles, which use topological insulators to block noise from the environment, could be used to create more stable qubits.