Honeywell to unveil the world's most powerful quantum computer by the middle of 2020

Honeywell claims its commercial quantum computer will offer a 'quantum volume' of ' 64, making it more than twice as powerful as IBM's recently announced quantum computer

Honeywell announced on Tuesday that it is developing what it claims is the world's most powerful quantum computer, and will unveil it by the middle of this year.

The technology group - an early pioneer of mainframe computing in the 1950s and 1960s - claimed that its researchers have discovered a novel technique that uses subatomic particles to accelerate processing in quantum systems.

Thanks to a breakthrough in technology, we're on track to release a quantum computer with a quantum volume of at least 64, twice that of the next alternative in the industry

The upcoming quantum computer from Honeywell will have a 'quantum volume' of at least 64, the company said.

Quantum volume is a metric used by researchers to compare the power of quantum computers. It takes into account both the number of qubits in a quantum system as well as the error rate.

In January, for example, IBM announced that it had built a 28-qubit computer, with a quantum volume of 32.

"Thanks to a breakthrough in technology, we're on track to release a quantum computer with a quantum volume of at least 64, twice that of the next alternative in the industry," Honeywell said.

Honeywell is today best known for developing complex control systems that currently run many of the world's largest industrial sites. The kind of experience that Honeywell has gained over the years has now enabled it to create an advanced 'ion trap' at the core of its claimed breakthrough.

Although superconducting quantum chips enable faster processing, ion traps provide more accuracy and can also hold their quantum state for a longer period of time

According to Honeywell, its quantum computer is based on this ion trap technology, in which ions — computer's qubits — are held in place using electromagnetic fields.

Although superconducting quantum chips enable faster processing, ion traps provide more accuracy and can also hold their quantum state for a longer period of time.

Honeywell is collaborating with two quantum software providers, Zapata Computing and Cambridge Quantum Computing, who will help the company to find new ways to utilise its quantum computer.

Honeywell is also partnering with investment bank JPMorgan Chase to discover new financial applications for its quantum computer.

The company said it has also approached Microsoft to allow its enterprise users to access Honeywell's quantum computer through Microsoft Azure cloud platform.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Honeywell Information Systems (HIS) pioneered some of the early mainframe computers alongside IBM, Burroughs, UNIVAC and NCR. Indeed, the companies were sometimes referred to as 'IBM and the seven dwarfs'. During the open systems revolution of the 1980s, Honeywell lost market share and pooled its resources with NEC and France's Groupe Bull, rolling up its interests to form Honeywell Bull in 1986. By 1991, Honeywell had pulled out of computing altogether. Until now.