Quantum computing is a rapidly-emerging technology that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers.
Today, IBM Quantum makes real quantum hardware -- a tool scientists only began to imagine three decades ago -- available to thousands of developers. Our engineers deliver ever-more-powerful superconducting quantum processors at regular intervals, building toward the quantum computing speed and capacity necessary to change the world.
These machines are very different from the classical computers that have been around for more than half a century. Here's a primer on this transformative technology.
When scientists and engineers encounter difficult problems, they turn to supercomputers. These are very large classical computers, often with thousands of classical CPU and GPU cores. However, even supercomputers struggle to solve certain kinds of problems.
If a supercomputer gets stumped, that's probably because the big classical machine was asked to solve a problem with a high degree of complexity. When classical computers fail, it's often due to complexity
Complex problems are problems with lots of variables interacting in complicated ways. Modeling the behavior of individual atoms in a molecule is a complex problem, because of all the different electrons interacting with one another. Sorting out the ideal routes for a few hundred tankers in a global shipping network is complex too.
Some complex problems are less obvious: A supercomputer would struggle to find the ideal seating arrangement of even 10 guests at a dinner party if they don't all want to sit next to one another, or to find the prime factors of a big number.
