IonQ has unveiled its next generation quantum computer system, which it claims to be the most powerful currently available.

The new system consists of perfect atomic clock qubits and random access all-to-all gate operations for efficient software compilation of applications, giving 32 qubits with low gate errors and an expected quantum volume greater than four million.

It will be first available via private beta, and then commercially available on Amazon Braket and Microsoft's Azure Quantum.

It is not the first to claim the title of world's fastest or most powerful quantum computer. In June, Honeywell unveiled a machine with a quantum volume of 64, apparently twice as powerful as the next alternative in the industry.

The benchmark measurement of quantum volume is a combined measure of the number of physical qubits, how connected and how error prone they are. Honeywell’s system, which has 6-qubits, beat the 53-qubit IBM system with a quantum volume of 32. Last October, Google laid claim to being the first company to achieve “quantum supremacy” with its Sycamore quantum processor.

"In a single generation of hardware, we went from 11 to 32 qubits, and more importantly, improved the fidelity required to use all 32 qubits," said IonQ chief executive and president Peter Chapman. "Depending on the application, customers will need somewhere between 80 and 150 very high-fidelity qubits and logic gates to see quantum advantage.

"Our goal is to double or more the number of qubits each year," he added. "With two new generations of hardware already in the works, companies not working with quantum now are at risk of falling behind."

IonQ co-founder and chief scientist Chris Monroe stated: "The new system we’re deploying today is able to do things no other quantum computer has been able to achieve, and even more importantly, we know how to continue making these systems much more powerful moving forward.

"With our new system, we expect to be able to encode multiple qubits to tolerate errors, the holy grail for scaling quantum computers in the long haul." This encoding requires just 13 qubits to make a near-perfect logical qubit, while in other hardware architectures it’s estimated to take more than 100,000.

Pre-existing IonQ customers and partners - including 1QBit, Cambridge Quantum Computing, QC Ware and Zapata Computing - are now preparing to drive towards the first wave of quantum applications.

"IonQ represents one of the most promising approaches to quantum computing that is both scalable and does not require any significant materials science or manufacturing breakthroughs," said Francis Ho, senior vice president and managing director at the Samsung Catalyst Fund.

"The company’s unique combination of academic research and experience plus proven performance has led to their system demonstrating industry leading performance and helping break new ground in quantum computing."

Arman Zaribafiyan, head of quantum simulation at 1QBit, added: "IonQ and 1QBit are working together on applying quantum computers to solve previously intractable problems in a variety of industries and are excited to explore new possibilities resulting from the release of IonQ's newest generation of devices."

IonQ has raised $84 million in funding, recently announcing new investment from Lockheed Martin, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Cambium. Previous investors include Samsung Electronics, Mubadala Capital, GV, Amazon and NEA.

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