Microsoft’s Majorana 1 Explained

You may have heard about the recent Microsoft Majorana 1 breakthrough and given it little thought, putting it down to one of those complex technical developments that has little relevance to consumers.

But the implications of this discovery – which was 17 years in the making – goes way beyond computers and technology. The creation of Majorana 1 – a completely new type of quantum chip – has the potential to solve global and industrial problems that could have huge benefits for humanity.

We ask Lifeline IT’s Technical Director Navdeep Batth to explain what Majorana 1 means.

Explained Navdeep: “Quantum computers are based on ‘qubits’. Qubits can be created in different ways, each with advantages and disadvantages. The biggest issue with qubits is their susceptibility, meaning they are extremely sensitive to environmental noise and disturbances which can cause them to make errors in calculations. This is a major obstacle to building large-scale, stable quantum computers.

“To solve the problem of quantum qubit instability, Microsoft has created a quantum chip powered by a new Topological Core architecture, which leverages the world’s first topoconductor. This offers more stable qubits requiring less error correction, thereby unlocking speed, size and controllability advantages.

“This new architecture used to develop the Majorana 1 processor offers a path to fit a million qubits on a single chip that can fit in the palm of one’s hand. When created, a quantum chip with a million qubits will be more powerful than all the world’s current computers combined.”