Industry giant Microsoft recently announced a significant advancement in quantum computing: the development of a new computing chip called Majorana 1. This chip, unveiled on Wednesday, represents a novel approach to data processing, specifically designed to support large qubit operations for future quantum computers.
The chip uniquely utilizes a Topological Core architecture, making it the world’s first “topoconductor”. This technology leverages Majorana particles, which are notoriously hard to detect. “In a regular chip the computation is done using electrons. We don’t use electrons. We use majoranas for computing. It’s [an] entirely new particle, it’s half electron,” said a Microsoft representative in the press release. The chip is created by atom by atom stacking in order to scale to a million functional qubits on one chip.
Majorana 1 combines topological qubits with superconductor properties. This combination is designed to create robust qubits that can withstand external errors, often referred to as ‘noise.’ The goal, according to Microsoft, is to “coax new quantum particles called Majoranas into existence and take advantage of their unique properties to reach the next horizon of quantum computing.”
A qubit, different from a standard bit, is the data type a quantum computer processes. Qubits can capture more detail by operating beyond the binary of 0 and 1. The more qubits a quantum computer has, the more data it can handle, leading to more advanced outputs.
However, other factors, like how well the qubits function together, dictate how stable and readable they are. Chetan Nayak, a Microsoft technical fellow, emphasized a key challenge and future focus: “Whatever you’re doing in the quantum space needs to have a path to a million qubits. If it doesn’t, you’re going to hit a wall before you get to the scale at which you can solve the really important problems that motivate us. We have actually worked out a path to a million.”
Despite this progress, scaling a quantum computer still has infrastructure challenges. Addressing overheating with dilution refrigerators, the need for proper fiber optic cabling, and material science research are still ongoing for creating a fault-tolerant quantum computer. Microsoft stated, “To be clear, continuing to refine those processes and getting all the elements to work together at accelerated scale [sic] will require more years of engineering work. But many difficult scientific and engineering challenges have now been met.”
Microsoft continues to invest in quantum computing research and partnerships. The company was recently selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative and has also unveiled new quantum computing capabilities for its Azure cloud services.
