Federal Tech Talk

Quantum computing: Out of the lab & into the market

Peter Chapman, CEO of IonQ joins host John Gilroy on this week's Federal Tech Talk to give an overview of quantum computing for federal information technology.

October 18, 2021 7:43 am

1 min read

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Peter Chapman, CEO of IonQ joined host John Gilroy on this week’s Federal Tech Talk to give an overview of quantum computing for federal information technology. The company motto is to get quantum out of the lab and into the market.

Some of the terminology in this interview seems like science fiction, but the fact of the matter is that companies like IonQ have produced breakthroughs in the esoteric world of atom manipulation that can have lasting impact. For example, during the discussion Chapman talked about bits versus Qbits and aiming lasers at individual atoms.

Let us attempt to frame the interview: “Classical computing” is our system today. We are familiar with the technology. A motherboard has a silicon CPU that processes code. Graphic chips can increase speed by a factor of ten — quantum technology can increase speed by a factor of 1,000. From a federal perspective, this means today’s encryption will be broken once quantum technology is mastered.

Quantum has not reached its potential because of a problem with error correction. Current methods stack quantum technology which results in errors in computation. IonQ has an offering that can reduce the error rate.

China has invested $10 billion into research to master quantum computing. They are betting that the country who develops a handle on quantum will be able to overcome obstacles like encryption.