US-based tech giant IBM announced its new open-source software that speeds up quantum computers, which are already about 100 trillion times faster than the world's fastest supercomputers, by a factor of 100. Over the next two years, IBM is planning to release quantum computing applications that will tackle challenges like artificial intelligence and complex financial calculations.
Zoom In: IBM has been a player in the race to achieve quantum supremacy for years now, along with competitors like Google, Intel, Microsoft, IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and Honeywell.
Quantum Computing 101: Quantum computers are based on the fundamentals of quantum physics. While conventional computers process data in binary digits (bits), either as ‘1’s or ‘0’s, quantum computers process over quantum bits (qubits), which can accompany a state of '1' and '0' at the same time.