Microsoft plans to build quantum computing infrastructure

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now seeking a quantum computing future for the IT giant with plans to build a quantum computing ecosystem, which would allow scientists to do computations in a fraction of a second.

"A quantum computer enables you to encode information, not just as one or zero but as one and zero simultaneously. That means it unlocks amazing parallelism," Nadella said in his keynote address at Microsoft's Ignite conference in Orlando yesterday.

The most advanced computers today are powered by this kind of technology.

"You could take a quantum computer and solve some of these unsolvable problems because they approach it with that amazing parallelism where they'll take every path in the corn maze simultaneously. That's the intuition behind the power of quantum," he said.

He added, however, that building a quantum computer required a lot more than just that simple intuition.

"We have had to assemble a world-class team. In fact, we've had to take a very novel approach of bringing together breakthroughs in math, fundamental physics, and computer science together, and put a system or get started on a journey to put a system that's going to be a truly scalable general purpose quantum computer," he said.

Michael Freedman who joined Microsoft's theoretical research group two decades ago, said Microsoft's qubit will be based on a new form of matter called topological matter that has the property as it stored matter globally, the information cannot be found in any particular place. A qubit is the basic unit of information in quantum computing, the counterpart to the bit in classical computing.

''A quantum computer is able to model nature,'' said Krysta Svore, who has led development of Microsoft software designed to work on quantum computers, as well as the quantum simulators that allow development to proceed even while the first machines are being built. ''With classical computers we're not able to really understand those processes.''

Meanwhile, according to commentators, the panel discussion on Quantum Computing revealed the potential role for Microsoft to empower this next revolution in computing with a new programming language and qubit simulator running Azure later this year. They add the importance that Quantum Computing received at the opening keynote at Ignite revealed the longer-term aspirations for Microsoft to push technology innovation, with an emphasis on mixed reality, AI, and quantum computing.

Microsoft's Ignite conference showcased the progress it has made toward developing both a topological qubit and the ecosystem of hardware and software that will eventually allow a wide range of developers to take advantage of quantum computing's power.

That progress includes a new programming language, which is deeply integrated with Visual Studio and designed to work on both a quantum simulator and a quantum computer.

Although Microsoft's plan to build a quantum computing ecosystem is based on Freedman's field of math and a branch of physics so seemingly mystical, experts believe quantum computing will have innumerable practical benefits.

That's because it would allow scientists to do computations in minutes or hours that would take the lifetime of the universe on even the most advanced classical computers we use today. That, in turn, would mean that people could find answers to scientific questions previously thought unanswerable.

Researchers say quantum computing could eventually be used to solve some of the world's toughest problems, from world hunger to the dangerous effects of climate change.