IBM Solved a Quantum Computing Problem 120 Times Faster Than Previously Possible

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:

IBM just solved this quantum computing problem 120 times faster than previously possible:

Using a combination of tweaked algorithms, improved control systems and a new quantum service called Qiskit Runtime, IBM researchers have managed to resolve a quantum problem 120 times faster than the previous time they gave it a go.

Back in 2017, Big Blue announced that, equipped with a seven-qubit quantum processor, its researchers had successfully simulated the behavior of a small molecule called lithium hydride (LiH). At the time, the operation took 45 days. Now, four years later, the IBM Quantum team has announced that the same problem was solved in only nine hours.

The simulation was run entirely on the cloud, through IBM's Qiskit platform - an open-source library of tools that lets developers around the world create quantum programs and run them on prototype quantum devices that IBM makes available over the cloud.

[...] Classical computing remains a fundamental part of Qiskit, and of any quantum operation carried out over the cloud. A quantum program can effectively be broken down into two parts: using classical hardware, like a laptop, developers send queries over the cloud to the quantum hardware - in this case, to IBM's quantum computation center in Poughkeepsie, New York.

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