This decade could hold more than a few breakthroughs for IBM, as the company claims to remain on target with plans to release a 1,121-qubit IBM Quantum Condor processor by 2023.  To achieve the long sought after quantum qubit status, IBM is relying on a harmonious ecosystem. For Big Blue, a well-timed intersection of hardware and software efforts brings the roadmap into view.

“The key thing that we focused on in the last six months is really an articulation of our roadmaps, so the roadmap around hardware, the roadmap around software, and we’ve also done quite a bit of ecosystem development,” said Jamie Thomas (pictured), general manager of strategy and development of IBM Systems.

Thomas spoke with Dave Vallente, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during IBM Think. They discussed the quantum computer, hybrid cloud, ecosystem evolution and more. (* Disclosure below.)

The role of open source in quantum qubit computing

During IBM Think, the company introduced Qiskit Runtime, which makes it easier and faster for developers to use quantum software. The software boosts the speeds of quantum circuits, the building blocks of quantum algorithms, by 120 times.

“As we go forward in the future, we’re modifying our Qiskit programming model to not only allow easy use by all types of developers, but to improve the fidelity of the entire machine,” Thomas said.

IBM also seeks to take advantage of OpenShift, running on a classic machine to achieve a “marriage” between classical processing and quantum processing.

“As you can imagine, that’ll give us a lot of flexibility in terms of where that classical machine resides and how we continue the evolution — the great marriage that does exist and will exist between classical computing and quantum computing,” Thomas concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Think. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE