Honeywell Just Released Details About How Its Quantum Computer Works
Engineering giant Honeywell burst into the quantum computing race out of left field last year. Now the company has provided the first concrete details of how its device works in a peer-reviewed journal.
Unlike its main rivals Google and IBM, who rely on superconducting qubits, Honeywell is using trapped ions to power its device. The technology has a long pedigree—most of the earliest quantum computing experiments relied on this approach—but difficulties in scaling devices beyond a few qubits saw it eclipsed by alternatives.
The technique relies on encoding information in the quantum states of charged particles called ions, which are suspended in a vacuum using electromagnetic fields. These qubits have a number of advantages over their superconducting cousins: they maintain their quantum states far longer, they’re less error-prone, and they...
