Calculating Quantum Computing's Future

Companies—and countries—are battling for leadership in this nascent technology that promises faster data crunching than ever before.

- Robert Hackett

1. THE BRAIN

- YOU’VE HEARD OF A CPU; now meet the QPU, or quantum processing unit. This computer, from startup Rigetti, features a gold-plated copper disk with a silicon chip inside that contains the machine’s brain. Most everything else in the computer is designed to keep the chip cold and stable.

2. THE HEART

- BENEATH THESE TUNA CAN– like heat exchangers sits the “mixing chamber”. Inside, different forms of liquid helium— helium-3 and helium-4—slosh together. Through separation and evaporation, the helium diffuses the heat.

3. THE SKELETON

-THESE GOLD PLATES ARE the layers of the quantum computer wedding cake. They separate cooling zones. At this layer, the temperatures dip to just above absolute zero. At the bottom, they plunge to one-hundredth of a Kelvin— hundreds of times as cold as outer space.

4. THE NERVES

- THE COILS IN THESE photons carrying coaxial cables are more than just a decorative flourish. They relieve the stresses that result from supercooling the interior. Without the coils, the cables would snap.

5. THE SHELL