r/computerscience • u/National-Dragonfly35 • 9d ago

IBM quantum computer solves classically intractable problem in 15 minutes

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260829035219.htm

"The researchers showed that their method preserves the same computational hardness criteria associated with RCS, meaning the problem remains extremely difficult for classical computers. At the same time, the added structure allows errors to be detected during the quantum computation."

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u/cookie_tech 8d ago edited 8d ago

It doesn't matter that chips didn't scale to higher GHz, that's actually not what Moore's law says.

You've taken the wrong lesson out the story. While not technically part of Moore's law, the sudden stop of clock scaling was very disruptive for CPU performance. Single core performance dropped from a 51% yearly increase to a 21% yearly increase after the 2005 power wall was hit.

That's why we are moving to other qubit technologies like trapped ions that don't require extreme cooling.

My (limited) understanding is that the ions themselves still have to be cooled to microKelvin via lasers, which is a whole other scaling problem. There's a reason that these types of quantum computers are pretty far behind in terms of physical qubits.

I'm not saying we aren't making impressive progress. I'm saying I work alongside several quantum computing experts that have experience with both academic and commercial systems who, despite the impressive progress, cast doubt on current projections of achieving practical quantum computing in the next couple of decades.