Quantum computing company D-Wave Systems Inc. announced Wednesday that its enormous 2000Q Quantum Computer is now generally available, and said has sold its first model for a whopping $15 million.

D-Wave claims on its website that its systems are the “most advanced quantum computers in the world.” Its machines store information using “qubits,” which encode information using 0s, 1s or both at the same time, as opposed to traditional computers, which use “bits” and only encode information using 0s or 1s. By using qubits instead of bits, D-Wave claims that its quantum computers are able to “manipulate enormous combinations of states at once,” making them far more powerful than their non-quantum cousins, at least for certain applications.

D-Wave unveiled the 2000Q Quantum Computer last September, saying it packs 2,000 qubits, making it twice as powerful as its original D-Wave 2X computer that was launched in August 2015. Now, the updated model has finally gone on sale, and a cybersecurity firm called Temporal Defense Systems Inc. has already snapped one up.

In a press release, D-Wave said the extra qubits and new control features of the 2000Q mean it can solved far more complicated problems than its predecessor could. In addition, the faster performance of the 2000Q should accelerate applications in cybersecurity, optimization, machine learning and sampling, the company said. D-Wave also pointed to benchmark tests that showed the 2000Q can outperform highly specialized algorithms run on state-of-the-art classical servers by a factor of between 1,000 and 10,000 times.

Although those benchmarks look promising, it’s not yet clear how broad a problem set quantum computers or D-Wave’s in particular, can address. Some observers remain skeptical.

James Burrell, chief technology officer at TDS, said his company plans to use the D-Wave 2000Q to revolutionize secure communications, protect against insider threats and identify cyber-adversaries and attack patterns. “The intent is to introduce an entirely new approach to existing and emerging cyber security challenges impacted by the volume, sophistication, and complexity of modern attack methodologies,” he added.

D-Wave said in addition to shipping the 200Q to customers, its quantum machines can also be accessed remotely on a pay-per-use basis.

Image courtesy of D-Wave Systems