Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) technology will be available in the near future. Quantum computers with 50-100 qubits may be able to perform tasks which surpass the capabilities of today's classical digital computers, but noise in quantum gates will limit the size of quantum circuits that can be executed reliably. NISQ devices will be useful tools for exploring many-body quantum physics, and may have other useful applications, but the 100-qubit quantum computer will not change the world right away --- we should regard it as a significant step toward the more powerful quantum technologies of the future. Quantum technologists should continue to strive for more accurate quantum gates and, eventually, fully fault-tolerant quantum computing.
@article{arxiv.1801.00862,
title = {Quantum Computing in the NISQ era and beyond},
author = {John Preskill},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.00862},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
20 pages. Based on a Keynote Address at Quantum Computing for Business, 5 December 2017. (v3) Formatted for publication in Quantum, minor revisions