Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize information technology as we know it by solving certain relevant and interesting problems, using fundamentally fewer resources (number of computational steps) compared with even the fastest supercomputers. While critical aspects of quantum computing are being demonstrated in laboratories across the world, a fully functional and practical quantum computer is still many years away. It therefore becomes of great interest to discover applications of small-scale quantum computers which are the subject of current theoretical and experimental research. In order to facilitate access to small quantum computers, IBM recently announced the IBM Quantum Experience which provides access to a 5-qubit quantum processor as a stepping stone for the community as a whole to continue learning and discovering the full potential of quantum computing.
Quantum computers have the potential to revolutionize information technology as we know it by solving certain relevant and interesting problems, using fundamentally fewer resources (number of computational steps) compared with even the fastest supercomputers. While critical aspects of quantum computing are being demonstrated in laboratories across the world, a fully functional and practical quantum computer is still many years away. It therefore becomes of great interest to discover applications of small-scale quantum computers which are the subject of current theoretical and experimental research. In order to facilitate access to small quantum computers, IBM recently announced the IBM Quantum Experience which provides access to a 5-qubit quantum processor as a stepping stone for the community as a whole to continue learning and discovering the full potential of quantum computing.
Abstract Quantum computing leverages fundamental quantum-mechanical phenomena—most notably superposition, entanglement, and quantum tunneling—to perform computations in ways that differ fundamentally from classical digital processing. Compared to conventional computing architectures, quantum systems promise significant reductions in computational time and potentially lower energy consumption for specific classes of problems. These advantages, combined with advances in nanoscale engineering and the slowing of traditional hardware scaling trends such as Moore’s Law, have led to substantial commercial and national-security-driven investments in quantum technologies over the past decade. A major milestone was reached when Google announced the experimental demonstration of “quantum supremacy,” showing that a quantum processor could execute a specific computational task infeasible for a classical supercomputer within practical time constraints. Although the demonstrated problem had no immediate practical application, this achievement marked a crucial step toward the development of quantum systems capable of delivering real-world computational advantages and provided a more precise technical framing of the concept of quantum advantage. Despite the fact that the mathematical foundations, programming models, and principal quantum algorithms were established in the 1990s, quantum computing remained largely confined to a specialized research community for decades. Today, the increasing accessibility of cloud-based quantum hardware calls for a broader dissemination of implementation-oriented knowledge among researchers and practitioners in computer science, software engineering, and related fields. The quantum programming paradigm differs fundamentally from classical programming models and often relies on physical and algebraic notations that may pose barriers to traditionally trained computer scientists. This series of articles provides a self-contained and concise introduction to quantum computing and its core algorithms, with a strong emphasis on practical implementation. Given that real quantum processors—such as those accessible via the IBM quantum ecosystem—are now available as cloud services, experimental validation can be conducted both on simulators and on actual hardware for small-scale inputs. While other platforms such as Rigetti and IonQ also offer cloud-based quantum computing services, this review focuses exclusively on the IBM quantum computing ecosystem.
The field of quantum computing has evolved into a large interdisciplinary community where significant resources are invested worldwide. As a result, accelerated progress is achieved and we are at the beginning of a new age of computation, developing programmable quantum systems towards universal quantum computers. Quantum computers promise to solve certain mathematical problems that are intractable to classical computers. Quantum computing systems are built from the bottom up reaching the limits of what can be classically simulated. The IBM Quantum Development Roadmap describes our vision of creating a quantum computing ecosystem delivering quantum applications through the cloud. This requires developing the entire quantum computing stack starting from the qubit and quantum processor technology, control electronics to software, algorithms and applications for quantum computing, implemented in the cloud and integrated with high performance computing. In this presentation the recent developments of our quantum computing systems and the scientific advances that enabled scaling superconducting quantum processors to 127 qubits are presented. Besides scale, also quality and speed will be discussed building the key metric for measuring the performance of quantum computation. Examples of applications where the computational power of quantum computing could make a difference are provided.
Quantum computing as emerging technology raises high expectations to accelerate complicated calculations, superseding capabilities of presently available supercomputers and to provide a solution to the ever-increasing challenge of processing big amount of data. Besides theoretical promises, quantum computers have successfully been realized in experimental settings during the past few years, and can now also be accessed commercially. Given this availability of quantum computers, their application potential can be scrutinized. Promised to lead to disruptive changes in addressing and solving problems from the domains of simulation, optimization and machine learning, quantum computers have been researched in context of many application scenarios in industrial and academic setting in the recent years. However, it turns out that currently available quantum computers are still to small in size and limited in quality to fulfill the high hopes set in them at the moment. This review reflects on the current state of the technology coming from the perspective of the application, and indicates the developments required on hardware, software and algorithmic side to eventually make quantum computing beneficial for applications.
Quantum physics provides an intriguing basis for achieving computational power to address certain categories of mathematical problems that are completely intractable with machine computation as we know it today. We present a brief overview of the current theoretical and experimental works in the emerging field of quantum computing. The implementation of a functioning quantum computer poses tremendous scientific and technological challenges, but current rates of progress suggest that these challenges will be substantively addressed over the next ten years. We provide a sketch of a quantum computing system based on superconducting circuits, which are the current focus of our research. A realistic vision emerges concerning the form of a future scalable fault-tolerant quantum computer.
The progress of Quantum Computing has significantly accelerated in recent years due to increased resources for research and development across the world. The focus has changed from just building quantum devices to establishing a quantum computing system including software and applications. An overview of the recent advancements of superconducting quantum computing systems is provided including the achievements made to scale processors to 127-qubit and scale up to 4000 qubits in 2025. Three key metrics are defined, scale, quality, and speed to holistically measure performance. The computational capabilities of today's quantum chips can be extended by adding classical resources using circuit knitting techniques to reach quantum advantage.
Quantum-centric supercomputing has the potential to revolutionize various fields by offering unprecedented computational power to tackle the world's most pressing problems. This research survey aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of quantum computing, the current state of quantum-centric supercomputers, and their potential applications in solving global challenges. We explore the basic concepts underlying quantum computing, including qubits, superposition, entanglement, and quantum algorithms. Furthermore, we examine the existing and proposed architectures of quantum-centric supercomputers, as well as recent technological advancements and breakthroughs. The paper also discusses the application of these advanced computational systems in areas such as climate modeling, drug discovery, cryptography, and artificial intelligence. Finally, we address the future directions and opportunities for quantum-centric supercomputing, including technological advances, research collaborations, and policy and ethical considerations. Our findings underscore the transformative potential of quantum-centric supercomputing and the need for continued research and development to fully harness its capabilities for addressing the world's most critical problems.