Microsoft introduces quantum computing chip, Majorana 1: What it offers and other details

Microsoft

Tech giant Microsoft has made a key breakthrough in computing technology by introducing Majorana 1, the company’s first quantum computing chip that will help computers solve problems faster. According to the company, this chip could transform everything from fighting pollution to developing new medicines, joining Google and IBM in the promise of quantum computing becoming closer to reality.

Majorana 1 chip integrates eight qubits, which are the essential units of quantum computing, into a compact, sticky-note-sized piece of hardware. Moreover, Microsoft envisions this chip as a stepping stone toward systems capable of supporting a million qubits. It is developed to be less prone to errors than rivals and the company has provided as evidence on a scientific paper set to be published in the academic journal Nature.

To create these qubits, Microsoft has developed topological conductors, a type of material which can observe and control Majorana particles to produce more reliable and scalable qubits. These serve as the foundation for a quantum chip that could finally scale to the one million qubits needed for real-world applications of various complex tasks.

Moreover, Microsoft's Majorana 1 has been in the works for over 17 years now, and relies on a subatomic particle called the Majorana fermion whose existence was first theorized in the 1930s. This method is highly stable and resistant to errors, making it a promising approach for building powerful supercomputers for the future.