ARMONK, New York: International Business Machines has launched its most powerful quantum computer, a 433-qubit machine known as the Osprey.

A qubit is the basic unit of information in a quantum computer. The computer has three times the number of qubits than the company’s Eagle machine.

Quantum computers are expected to speed up certain calculations by millions of times compared to the current fastest computers.

IBM director of research Dario Gil said the company will eventually introduce a computer with over 1,000 qubits.

“As we push the limits of the size of the Osprey chip that we are announcing, if you look at it, it is really big already. Next year, 1,000 is going to be very big,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.

IBM calls the modular system “Quantum System Two.”

In an interview with Reuters at the IBM Quantum Summit this week, Gil said, “Quantum System Two is the first truly modular quantum computing system, so you can continue to scale to larger and larger systems over time.”

IBM said it is targeting for this system to be online by end of next year and it would be the building blocks for “quantum-centric supercomputing” by connecting multiple Quantum System Twos.

It can also build a system with up to 16,632 qubits by linking three of these systems, it added.

IBM has over 20 quantum computers, which customers from around the world can access through the cloud.