Quantum Computing Progress Reevaluated with New Scalability Framework

A new framework for evaluating quantum computing's progress has been proposed by Microsoft Quantum and QOLAB. The team suggests that assessing scalable logical qubits requires a more comprehensive approach than just counting physical qubits or isolated error rates.

The researchers propose evaluating logical qubits across four connected measures: reliability, scale, capability, and performance. A system must demonstrate repeated quantum error correction, support universal fault-tolerant operations, have a credible route to replication at the required scale, and exhibit low latency feedback.

The team estimates that useful quantum computing could require over 100 high-quality logical qubits with error rates around one failure in 10 billion operations. More demanding applications may need more than 1,000 logical qubits with error rates of one in 1 quadrillion or better.