Quantum Computing Benchmarks - Too Soon?
The Futurum Group, Tuesday, September 10th, 2024
Quantum systems today vary in almost every way you can imagine, in the number of qubits, the fidelity of operations, qubit modality, cost per qubit, energy usage, cooling required, physical footprint, and manufacturability. We're not even sure which quantum computing applications will show the most value or which specific algorithms we will use at that time.
Key Points
> In July, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) started the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).
> On September 3, DARPA will host a meeting for US and international experts who believe they and their partners can build such sufficiently powerful systems. DARPA will explain its goals and engagement rules and answer participants' questions.
> However, is there any point in having quantum benchmarks right now? Are the systems too small to extrapolate their performance to the powerful machines we will eventually need?