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While Im convinced 2011 will ultimately go down in history as the year the groundbreaking motion picture Cowboys & Aliens was released, it bears mentioning that it was also the year in which the first commercial quantum computer officially went online.

You can dispute whether Daniel Craigs turn as an alien-fighting gold thief with amnesia is worthy of such high praise, but theres no debating that D-Waves a bonafide pioneer in the world of quantum computing.

Dubbed the D-Wave One (two years before the Xbox One gaming system came out), the companys first production model was a quantum annealing system designed to attack optimization problems.

Over a decade later, the company is working on the Advantage Two. Not counting prototypes, itll be the outfits sixth major quantum computing system.

Advantage Two will be a quantum-annealing system featuring a whopping 7,000 functioning qubits.

For folks whove followed quantum computing news, that 7,000 functioning qubits figure might look like a typo. The largest gate-based model were aware of is QuEras 256-qubit neutral atom system.

But D-Waves system uses a different technology.

As Rebel Brown, a marketer whose blog I found at random, explains quite eloquently:

One way to understand the difference between the two types of quantum computer is that the gate model quantum computers require problems to be expressed in terms of quantum gates, and the quantum annealing computer requires problems to be expressed in the language of operations research problems.

But dont just take Browns word for it. The two kinds of quantum computers are as different as night and day. Where gate-based models are still more research than function, D-Waves annealing systems have been solving problems for decades.

As Murray Thom, VP of product management for D-Wave, put it in a recent interview with Neural:

Our focus is 100% on commercial use-cases and bringing value to our customers.

And that means using quantum computers to provide solutions right now. Quantum annealing does that because, as Thom told us, its really the only way to approach optimization problems.

However there are more than just optimization problems out there that need solving. Advantage Two should be able to, for example, help medical facilities optimize nurse and physician schedules across massive geographic areas during disasters and outbreaks.

But it wont be as useful as a gate-based quantum computer when it comes to running quantum simulations for challenging problems such as drug discovery.

Ideally, youd be able to use both. But gate-based systems are experimental at best. Until recently, with the launch of its Clarity Roadmap, D-Waves been content to be a quantum-annealing company in the streets and a cutting-edge research org in the lab.

That all changed last year when D-Wave unveiled its ambitions to combine gate-based technologies with annealing systems using cloud-based portals and tailored software solutions.

Thom told us that D-Wave is convinced that the time is now. Not just for its own stockholders (the companys in the process of going public) but for the entire industry.

According to Thom:

From 2017-2018 to now there has been this explosion in quantum computing tools and getting people access to them. This next phase is going to be the rapid expansion point.

The quantum computing market is expected to triple in the next three years. While theres certainly room for everyone, not all market shares are created equal.

D-Waves already secured its position as the front-runner in quantum optimization solutions. The addition of gate-based systems through separate or integrated stacks could potentially provide its customers with the worlds only one-stop shop for spooky-action-at-a-distance-as-a-service.

Neurals take: Itll be interesting to see if D-Waves ambitions and experience can overcome Googles hunger and bankroll or IBMs sheer tenacity when it comes to pressing an advantage in the field.

At the end of the day, a rising tide lifts all vessels. Were probably further away from quantum computing companies competing for clients than we are from useful gate-based systems. For now at least, theres plenty of quantum problems to go around.

Read more:
D-Wave's cross platform quantum services are bridge to the future - The Next Web