The Quantum Dichotomy
Given the rate at which things are moving, it may not be too long before we are out shopping for our first quantum computer. And not too long after that maybe quantum phones too! LOL you never know....
So this post is to help you decide on buying your first Quantum Computer for your business without getting too technical. As for buying that quantum phone, let's just leave that decision to our kids they will know better!
Off late we have had two major announcements relating to Quantum computing, "The Willow" from Google and "Majorana 1" from Microsoft. Both these chips operate in the Quantum domain using a Fundamental units of information called Qubits. But thats where the similarity ends. When coming to real life applications they have complementary strengths and opposing tradeoffs.
The tasks that Willow is optimized for is different from the tasks that Majorana is optimized for. This is loosely similar to how the architecture of the Apple Silicone chips is orthogonal to the architecture of Intel chips imparting both with certain strengths and tradeoffs. This is the Quantum Dichotomy!
Given the technical computation needed to design and manufacture Quantum chips, I predict one of the first commercial applications for a Quantum Chip would be in the Manufacture of future quantum chips. Quantum computing is deeply technical and I am not the right person to elaborate on the technical architecture here. All I intend to do in this article is compare them from a Business POV seeing how and where these Quantum chips can make the most business impact. The content written here is my understanding based on the literature released from Google and Microsoft and then extrapolating it to our know business use-cases.
I see 2 main areas where the two quantum chips differ from a business application perspective
Speed v/s Scalability
This dichotomy is probably the most prominent. Google highlights the immense computing capability of their Willow chip in their introductory video. A calculation that takes a classical super computer 10 septillion years was accomplished by a Willow powered computer in 5 minutes.
On the other hand Microsoft is drawing all the attention to their Topological Qubits and their ability to scale up as per the requirements. The presence of a Million Qubits on a "Single Tiny" chip is referred to multiple times in their video and so is it's ability to scale up.
The difference in Qubits numbers between Willow and Majorana is also indicative of this dichotomy. Willow seems to be stuck at 105 Qubits whereas the Majorana can be effectively scaled up to 1 million Qubits when the need comes.
From a business perspective, industries that value speed and realtime decision making would benefit from leveraging the services of a Google Willow driven Quantum computer and industries that value scalability and growth would gravitate towards Microsoft's Majorana.
Data Exploitation v/s Data Exploration
Solving massive problems in parallel is Quantum computing's forte. But even more so its the sweet spot for Google Willow. The Quantum Error Correction computation that Google's Willow used as a benchmark, considered countless computes taking in an equally staggering amount of data points to compute the probability distributions of the outcomes in Parallel! The magnitude of the data involved was truly massive! This kind of computing approach is called data exploitation where known data points are exploited for generating solutions. This approach is backward looking.
Microsoft is heading in the other direction of generating new data from Simulations. This synthetic data is generated at a rapid pace where the quantum nature of the Qubits explore multiple values of the variables involved simultaneously providing a near 100% coverage of the data scenarios. This kind of computing approach is called data exploration where unknown data points are explored for generating novel solutions. This approach is forward looking.
From a business perspective, industries that have vast amounts of historic data that needs processed real fast would likely opt for the Google Willow. These organizations are also looking for answers that answer questions that begin with "How does......?". Organizations that rely on simulations to consider different possibilities would opt for Microsoft's Majorana. These organizations are also looking for answers that answer questions that begin with "How will......?".
Which one should you buy?
Quantum Computing is a fast evolving field and is still in a very nascent stage. These observations could be made redundant very soon or they could be strengthened too. But what ever transpires in the upcoming days it is a good starting point to evaluate these chips based on the two scenarios given above since no matter what industry you work in these trade offs are important for everyone. There are other players too who are on the verge of unveiling their own Quantum Chips. Amazon is due to launch the Ocelot and IBM has launched the Heron.
And as for the Quantum phone there is going to be one heck of a demand for that for sure, better to pre order that right away! ??
PS - These are some videos that I have used to build my assessment on the two Quantum Chips. You can watch them if you have time and also if you can make out any further distinctions please do share your thoughts in the comments so it can add to these thoughts.
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