Quantum Computing 101: Introduction to QC
HPCwire, Monday, September 7th, 2026
HPCwire's primer explains quantum computing principles, the main qubit modalities and the challenges slowing adoption.
HPCwire's introduction to quantum computing explains how qubits use superposition, entanglement and interference, and why decoherence is a core obstacle.
It surveys the main modalities and their vendors: superconducting (IBM, Google, Rigetti), trapped ion (Quantinuum, IonQ), neutral atom (QuEra, Pasqal, Atom Computing), spin qubits (Intel, Diraq), photonic (Xanadu, PsiQuantum) and quantum annealing (D-Wave).
It then outlines barriers to broader adoption, including error correction overhead, systems with more than 1,200 physical qubits exposing only a couple dozen logical qubits, difficulty moving quantum data, and a thin software ecosystem.