Claims of leaps in quantum computing are made almost daily, but progress is hard to judge when each research group uses its own mixture of hardware, algorithms and evaluation metrics, making it near impossible to compare systems. Now, researchers are trying to make it easier to chart the performance of quantum machines. As part of an ongoing effort, a consortium of UK researchers has created a suite of metrics that they say is a holistic way to measure the performance of quantum computers. They have published the work alongside a library of open-source software called QCMet1. Separately, a group including tech giant IBM and Helsinki-based quantum-software company Algorithmiq launched the Quantum Advantage Tracker last month as a way to compare experiments that purport to show 'quantum advantage' ' that is, an efficiency or accuracy better than that of a classical machine. 'People ask, 'When is quantum computing going to be useful'' I think it's a little bit of a farcical question to...
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