By Josh Perry, Editor
[email protected]

At the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the IBM Q System One quantum computer was revealed for the first time and explained that its computing power could be accessed by companies through the IBM cloud.

IBM has just unveiled IBM Q System One, a cloud-based quantum computing system for commercial applications. (IBM Research)

According to the IBM Research website, this is the world’s first integrated quantum computing system for commercial applications. System One is encased in a nine-foot-tall, nine-foot-wide borosilicate glass that provides a sealed, airtight enclosure.

“A series of independent aluminum and steel frames unify, but also decouple the system’s cryostat, control electronics, and exterior casing, helping to isolate the system components for improved performance,” IBM explained.

System One was originally assembled for testing this summer at the Milan, Italy headquarters of Goppion, which designed the enclosure.

IBM said that the integrated quantum cloud-based computing system features quantum hardware that produces “repeatable and predictable high-quality qubits,” cryogenic cooling in an isolated environment, compact electronics to control the large number of qubits, quantum firmware to monitor and manage system health to avoid downtime, and “classical computation to provide secure cloud access and hybrid execution of quantum algorithms.”

In addition, the IBM Q Quantum Computation Center will be opened in the second half of the year in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to expand the company’s cloud-based quantum computing program, which is open to members of the IBM Q Network.

A report from MIT Technology Review explained that cloud-based quantum computing is not necessarily new, as IBM already offers that service and Rigetti Computing in the U.S. and D-Wave in Canada also offer cloud access to quantum machines. The difference is the aesthetic appeal of System One, which looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

“But the system’s going to sit in an IBM facility, so what it looks like is irrelevant,” the review concluded. “All companies really care about is performance. If the Q System One delivers a superior one, it could look like a giant sardine can and no one would care.”