IBM says quantum chip could beat standard chips in two years

FILE PHOTO: The logo for IBM is seen at the SIBOS banking and financial conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada October 19, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

(Reuters) - International Business Machines on Monday said it has designed a new quantum computing chip that its executives believe will let quantum systems start to outperform classical computers at some tasks within the next two years.

IBM said that its "Eagle" computing chip has 127 so-called "qubits," which can represent information in quantum form. Classical computers work using "bits" that must be either a 1 or 0, but qubits can be both a 1 and a 0 simultaneously.