Despite the advances in computing over the past five decades, computers must still constantly adapt to meet evolving technologies and demands. IBM has addressed the need for faster and more-evolved tech with its Z mainframes and Power Systems, as well as its supercomputers, dubbed Summit and Sierra, which are designed for data and artificial intelligence. It’s also recently unveiled its Quantum System One, which IBM dubbed “the world’s first integrated quantum computing system.”

“Workload-specific processing is still very much in demand,” said Jamie Thomas (pictured), general manager of systems strategy and development at IBM. “Workloads are going to have different dimensions, and that’s what we really have focused on here.”

Thomas spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think event in San Francisco. They discussed containers, quantum computing, and edge computing. (* Disclosure below.)

[Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.]

Miniman: It’s interesting to watch while the “pendulum swings” in IT have happened, the Z system has kept up with a lot of these innovations that have been going on in the industry.

Thomas: One of our big focuses for the platform, for Z and Power, is a container-based strategy. Last year we talked about secure container technology, and we continue to evolve secure container technology, but the idea is we want to eliminate any kind of friction from a developer’s perspective. So if you want to design in a container-based environment, then you’re more easily able to port that technology or your apps to a Z mainframe environment if that’s really what your target environment is.

The other major invention that we announced at the Consumer Electronics Show is the Quantum System One, which is the world’s first self-contained quantum computer in a single-form factor where we were able to combine the Quantum processor. This is all self-contained with its electronics in a single form factor, and that really represents the evolution of the electronics where we were able to miniaturize those electronics and get them into this differentiated form factor.

Vellante: What should the layperson know about Quantum and try to understand?

Thomas: I think really the fundamental aspect of it is in today’s world with traditional computers, they’re very powerful, but they cannot solve certain problems. In the area of chemistry, for instance, molecular modeling — today we can model simple molecules, but we cannot model something even as complex as caffeine. We simply don’t have the traditional compute capacity to do that. A quantum computer will allow us once it comes to maturity to solve these problems that are not solvable today. And you can think about all the things that we could do if we were able to have more sophisticated molecular modeling.

Miniman: How do you balance the research through the product and what’s going to be more useful to users today?

Thomas: IBM is one of the few organizations in the world that has an applied research organization still. An organization like IBM Systems has a great relationship with IBM Research. I would say that Quantum is the ultimate partnership between IBM Systems and IBM Research. We have one team in this case that are working jointly on the product, bringing the skills to bear that each of us have — in this case with them having the quantum physics experts and us having the electronics experts. And, of course, the software stacks spanning both organizations is really a great partnership.

Vellante: Is there anything you could tell us about what’s going on at the edge?

Thomas: Well, I believe the edge is going to be a practical endeavor for us. If we look at the edge as perhaps a factory environment, we are seeing opportunities for storage compute solutions around data management. Being able to manage the data at the edge, being able to then provide insight appropriately using AI technologies is something we think we can do — and we see that.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM Think event. (* Disclosure: IBM sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither IBM nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE