Harvard University: Harvard Researchers Develop First Ever Continuously Operating Quantum Computer

A team of Harvard physicists built the first-ever quantum computing machine that can operate continuously without restarting, achieving a major breakthrough in a field that could revolutionize everything from medical research to finance.

For years, most quantum computers could only run for milliseconds, and even advanced machines that could run longer would operate for just around 13 seconds. But the Harvard team was able to run their system for more than two hours last month — and several of the researchers said the machine could, in theory, run indefinitely.

"There is still a way to go and scale from where we are now, but the roadmap is now clear based on the breakthrough experiments that we've done here at Harvard," said Tout T. Wang, a research associate who works in the lab that designed the machine.

Conventional computers use binary code that can represent either zero or one, but quantum computers use subatomic particles that can represent multiple states at once. This allows quantum computers to solve problems in minutes that would otherwise take normal computers thousands of years to run.