Honeywell International (NYSE: HON) has unveiled a powerful quantum computer the company claims is more powerful than competing products, such as those made by International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM).
Honeywell's new quantum computer is boasted to be roughly twice as power as existing computer models. The computer's "quantum volume" sits at 64, where competing computers such as IBM's sit at 32. Honeywell's wide area of expertise (ranging from Aerospace to, of course, computing) helped contribute to the development of the computer, the development of which took roughly a decade.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JMP) is set to become Honeywell's first quantum computing customer and will work closely with the company to further develop its quantum computing products and expand them into different fields.
Reaction to Honeywell's announcement has been enthused but muted, likely due to the lack of hard details at present. Muted enthusiasm may also likely stem from the controversy surrounding Google's (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Sycamore project. Google had claimed that it had attained "quantum supremacy" due to the rapid pace at which its Sycamore computer solved an equation that would have taken a traditional supercomputer 10,000 years. Google's claims were disputed by computing experts, chiefly by IBM, which claimed that Google could not claim "Supremacy" as its computer was designed for that sole equation.
Honeywell's computer, if it is as powerful as the company claims, could pave the way for more powerful computers going forward. Quantum computing is not yet ready for widespread application, but its potentials are hard to ignore. Quantum computers, by design, can tackle a wider range of problems that traditional computers are unable to. Quantum computing could be applied to a wide variety of sectors, ranging from finance to pharmaceuticals. Quantum computing could also speed up developments in other nascent fields such as artificial intelligence.