IBM has opened its first European quantum data centre in Ehningen, in the south of Germany. What is it? And how will it impact the lives of European citizens? Euronews Tech Talks travelled to Germany to discover it.
Ehningen, in southern Germany, looks like any other small European town. Located less than 30 km from Stuttgart, it has a library, a church, and a couple of restaurants, and its streets are filled with children playing football.
No one would expect that a few kilometres from the residential area lies an industrial hub, home to one of the most groundbreaking technological revolutions: the first International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) quantum computing data centre in Europe.
IBM’s first quantum data centre in Europe
On October 1st, the US company officially launched its first quantum data centre in Europe – and only its second one worldwide – in Ehningen.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, along with CEOs, experts, and journalists, attended the ceremony for what was presented as a groundbreaking step towards the future of technology.
Quantum computers are extremely powerful computers that are expected to revolutionise our future.
While regular computers use bits that can be either 0 or 1, quantum computers use qubits. Qubits can be both 1 and 0 at the same time, which means they can explore many possible outcomes all at once.
Specifically, the Ehningen data centre has two Eagle processors, each with 127 qubits. But soon, IBM will be adding a third processor called Heron that will boost the centre’s performance.
Heron has 156 qubits and it’s the most powerful quantum chip the company has made so far.
“Heron was a completely new technology that we had to develop and that required completely different controls,” Jay Gambetta, vice president of IBM Quantum and IBM Fellow, told Euronews Tech Talks.
The Heron processors are 16 times more powerful and can run up to 25 times faster, all while reducing error rates.
“The hardest question that we need to answer as a community is how do we write algorithms?” Gambetta explained when asked about the purpose of the IBM data centre.
This function will be highly beneficial to IBM’s 250 partners, which include Credit Mutuelle, Bosch, and Eon.
Ana Paula de Jesus Assis, chair and general manager of IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa, told Euronews Tech Talks that these companies will resort to the IBM data centre and quantum computing to face practical challenges including how to improve risk management in insurance policies for housing, or how to make cars more performative and reduce emissions.
Why choose Ehningen, Germany?
IBM’s decision to establish its data centre in Ehningen does not come as a surprise.
The German town is already home to an IBM campus and a quantum computer, and Baden-Württemberg, the region it is located in, is an industrial hub with a remarkable economic weight in Germany’s GDP.
ADVERTISEMENTIn 2023, Baden-Württemberg was Germany’s largest exporter and in 2022, it held the distinction of being the German region with the highest investment in research and development.
“It’s an area that comprises a lot of companies in key industries that we believe are going to benefit from quantum computing like industrial plants, chemicals, materials, sciences,” Ana Paula de Jesus Assis said.
On top of this, she highlighted that the EU is at the forefront of the quantum computing race.
“When we look at the entire ecosystem of quantum, we expect that by 2025, there will be more than €1 billion of investment in Europe in this area,” she said.
ADVERTISEMENTBut how will European citizens practically benefit from the creation of this centre?
Tune in to the podcast to find out the answer.
Source: Euro News
