The storied semiconductor company said that its 'Eagle' computing chip has 127 so-called 'qubits', which can represent information in quantum form. Classical computers work using 'bits' that must be either a 1 or 0, whilst qubits can be both a 1 and a 0 simultaneously.
That fact could one day make quantum computers much faster than their classical counterparts. However, qubits are exceedingly hard to build and require huge cryogenic refrigerators to operate correctly. While Apple's newest M1 Max chip has 57 billion transistors - a rough proxy for bits - IBM says that its new Eagle chip is the first to have more than 100 qubits.
IBM said that new techniques it learned in building the chip - which is manufactured at its facilities in New York state - will eventually produce more qubits when combined with other advances in the quantum computer's refrigeration and control systems. Continuing with the 'large flying bird' naming...