<story><title>IBM Q system in development with working 50 qubit processor</title><url>http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/53374.wss</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>darawk</author><text>The article appears to be saying that they are offering an &lt;i&gt;actual&lt;/i&gt; quantum computer as a service, but as I recall, their previous offering was a &lt;i&gt;simulation&lt;/i&gt; of a quantum computing environment. Yet, this same article refers to that thing as if it were a real QC. This makes me skeptical that the thing being offered here is a real quantum computer...Anyone here have any insight into whether this is legitimate?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vtomole</author><text>Their previous offerings have been 2 physical quantum computers that can be accessed over the cloud. One with 5 qubits, and another with 16 qubits[0]. These computers have had thousands of users who have run millions of quantum algorithms [1].&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www-03.ibm.com&amp;#x2F;press&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;pressrelease&amp;#x2F;52403.wss&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www-03.ibm.com&amp;#x2F;press&amp;#x2F;us&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;pressrelease&amp;#x2F;52403.wss&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1]:&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.engadget.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;ibm-50-qubit-quantum-computer&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.engadget.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;ibm-50-qubit-quantum-com...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>IBM Q system in development with working 50 qubit processor</title><url>http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/53374.wss</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>darawk</author><text>The article appears to be saying that they are offering an &lt;i&gt;actual&lt;/i&gt; quantum computer as a service, but as I recall, their previous offering was a &lt;i&gt;simulation&lt;/i&gt; of a quantum computing environment. Yet, this same article refers to that thing as if it were a real QC. This makes me skeptical that the thing being offered here is a real quantum computer...Anyone here have any insight into whether this is legitimate?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jameshclark</author><text>The last news from IBM on HN about their quantum offering was that they had optimised the memory required for simulating quantum computers. 50-qubits seemed to the the upper limit before, but they managed to simulate a 56-qubit circuit. It was a good read: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arxiv.org&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;1710.05867&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;arxiv.org&amp;#x2F;abs&amp;#x2F;1710.05867&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;They&amp;#x27;ve had real hardware for a while, though, and they have 5-qubit and 16-qubit machines that anyone can try via IBM Q experience.&lt;p&gt;So this is 100% legit as far as I&amp;#x27;m concerned.</text></comment>