It has been a while since we thought about computers and thought about Honeywell. Sure, they had a series of computers they bought from General Electric and Computer Control Company in the 1970s. Even before that they joined with Raytheon and produced vacuum tube computers that later morphed into transistor-based computers. But in recent years, you are more likely to think of Honeywell for thermostats, air filters, and industrial controls. But now, Honeywell has come out of the computer shadows with some impressive quantum computer hardware and they clearly have big plans.
Comparing quantum computers is a bit dicey just as, for example, judging CPUs by instructions per second has its problems. In the past, vendors have jockeyed for the maximum number of qubits, but that’s misleading in some cases. Processing power depends on the number of qubits, their quality, and how they are connected. IBM introduced the idea of quantum volume and Honeywell claims their new machine will hit 64 by that measure, twice that of anyone else’s quantum computer that we know about.
What’s more, is they’ve promised to increase the volume by a factor of ten each year. The company plans to make their computers available via the Microsoft cloud.
According to Honeywell, their use of trapped ion qubits is superior to other computers that use some indirect method which is more prone to noise. Of course, the computer operates in an exotic environment, which Honeywell is used to handling.
Want to know more about quantum computing? Check out our series using (mostly) Quirk. Who knows? You might be able to build your own one day.
Source:: Hackaday