A quantum computer that is stable and reliable enough to be used in real-world research has been installed at Yonsei University for the first time in Korea. It has the ability to process more information than the number of stars in the universe in an instant.

On November 20, Yonsei University unveiled the IBM Quantum System One, a quantum computer installed at the Quantum Computing Center at its Songdo International Campus in Incheon. Quantum System One is the world's first general-purpose quantum computer, introduced by IBM in 2019.

The quantum computer unveiled today could not be seen because it was embedded inside a cryogenic cooling device. Inside the cylindrical chiller is a quantum computer that looks like a chandelier with layered disks connected by wires. The cryogenic environment is essential to stabilize the quantum state. “The cooling system uses helium gas to maintain a temperature of minus 273 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature of the universe,” said Pyo Chang-hee, head of IBM's business division.

Yonsei is the first university in Korea to introduce Quantum System One. Yonsei pays IBM a license fee and has exclusive rights to use the system. This makes South Korea the fifth country after the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Japan to import the product.

A quantum computer is a computer that utilizes quantum phenomena such as entanglement and superposition to perform operations. Information is stored as qubits, which are superpositions of zeros and ones, rather than bits, which are stored in two states, 0 and 1. Because information exists simultaneously, computation is extremely fast. A calculation that would take a supercomputer 10,000 years to complete can be done by a quantum computer in just three to four minutes. However, they are sensitive to temperature and vibration and prone to miscalculations, so they are far from commercialization.

Quantum System One is considered the most stable quantum computer to date. It is powered by an “Eagle Processor,” which acts as a kind of central processing unit (CPU) and has a computational power of 127 qubits.

For every additional qubit, the quantum processor doubles its computational power. “A 127-qubit quantum computer can simultaneously process 127-win operations of 2, which is more than the number of stars in the universe,” said Jeong Jae-ho, head of Yonsei's Quantum Business Center.

Yonsei plans to first utilize the quantum computer in the biological field, including drug discovery. The use of quantum computers for “molecular simulation,” in which the movements of candidate drugs and protein molecules is computerized to find optimal values, can dramatically lower development costs. For example, Pfizer's hemophilia gene therapy BEQVEZ costs 4.6 billion won for a single dose. “If quantum computing can reduce computational costs, we can produce a drug that costs 400 million won or 40 million won instead of 4.6 billion won,” Jeong said, adding, “We need to address the most urgent needs first.”

One challenge is the difficulty of fixing errors in the middle of a computation. IBM aims to finish developing a quantum computer that can correct errors by 2029.