Microsoft recently introduced a quantum chip called Majorana 1 powered by a new Topological Core architecture. The company claims it’s the world’s first Quantum Processing Unit (QPU).
Majorana 1 leverages what the company calls breakthrough material that can observe and control Majorana particles to produce more reliable and scalable qubits, which are the building blocks for quantum computers. In a press release, the company states:
In the same way that the invention of semiconductors made today’s smartphones, computers, and electronics possible, topoconductors and the new type of chip they enable offer a path to developing quantum systems that can scale to a million qubits and are capable of tackling the most complex industrial and societal problems.
The topoconductor, or topological superconductor, creates a unique state of matter that enables the development of stable, fast, and controllable qubits without the trade-offs of existing alternatives. A new study in Nature details how Microsoft researchers created and accurately measured the properties of topological qubits, an essential advancement for practical computing.
In a Microsoft blog, Chetan Nayak, technical fellow and corporate vice president of Quantum Hardware, writes:
Our measurement-based approach dramatically simplifies quantum error correction (QEC). We perform error correction entirely through measurements activated by simple digital pulses that connect and disconnect quantum dots from nanowires. This digital control makes managing the large numbers of qubits needed for real-world applications practical.
However, some researchers are critical of the company’s choice to publicly announce the creation of a qubit without releasing detailed evidence. Georgios Katsaros, a physicist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg, comments in a Nature article:
Without seeing the extra data from the qubit operation, there is not much one can comment on.
Microsoft’s top conductor comprises indium arsenide (a semiconductor), a material with unique properties currently utilized in applications such as infrared detectors, and aluminum (a superconductor). When cooled to near absolute zero and tuned with magnetic fields, topological superconducting nanowires with Majorana Zero Modes (MZMs) are formed at the wires’ ends. MZMs are the building blocks of Microsoft’s qubits.
(Source: Microsoft Blog Post)
Berci Mesko, a medical futurist, tweeted on X:
Here is Microsoft’s new quantum chip called Majorana 1 that could help realize quantum computers capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades.
Imagine the impact quantum computers could have on healthcare, especially in drug design and diagnostic decision-making. No, we cannot even imagine that. It would bring the impact of AI into a new dimension. I’m not overhyping the technology. This is the scale we have to keep in mind for quantum computing.
Lastly, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Microsoft as one of two finalists in its Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program, part of the broader Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), which aims to assess quantum systems capable of tackling challenges that classical computers cannot.
