INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
During last September Ignite conference, Microsoft heavily emphasized its quantum computing effortsand launched both its Q# programming
language and development kits.
This year, the focus is on other things, and the announcements about quantum are far and in between (and
our understanding is that Microsoft, unlike some of its competitors, doesn''t have a working quantum computing prototype yet)
It did, however, announce an addition to its Quantum Development Kit that brings a new chemical simulation library to tools for getting
started with quantum computing.
While there are plenty of applications for quantum computing once it becomes a reality, quite a few experts
are betting on chemical simulations as one of the first areas where developers will be able to reap the fruits of this new computing
It maybe no surprise then that Microsoft is also betting on this.
The new library was developed in collaboration with Pacific Northwest
&The library will enable developers and organizations to create quantum-inspired solutions that can be simulated on classical computers
today and quantum computers in the future & helping them tackle big chemistry challenges in such fields as agriculture and climate,&
Microsoft explained ahead of today announcement.
While Microsoft is still working on making quantum hardware available to developers,
competitors like IBM and Rigetti already offer working machines that may be limited in their capabilities — as all quantum computers
currently are — but that offer developers the ability to test their algorithms on real machines
We&re still a while away from reaching the point where quantum computers will be able to live up to their potential, but as both IBM Dario
Gil and RigettiCEO Chad Rigetti told me at our Disrupt conference earlier this year, now is the time to get started with learning the
basics.
The reality of quantum computing could be just three years away
