Two supercold qubits

Chris Lee writes:

I have been writing about quantum computing for a while now. If you look at my recent writing, though, you won't find much about quantum computing. Why? Well, it all felt a little repetitive. The publications were still coming, but each new one seemed very much like the previous one. I'm not being cynical here; sometimes you just burn out on a subject.

In that light, it takes something special to attract my attention. It turns out that making something that looks and feels like a complete quantum computer—albeit on the smallest of scales—will definitely attract my attention. What we have here, ladies and gentleman, is nothing more or less than the first quantum microprocessor.

I have been badmouthing quantum computing, so it seem fair to recognize what apppears to be the state of the art. Other recent papers are in this Timeline of quantum computing

. This paper is Implementing the Quantum von Neumann Architecture with Superconducting Circuits.

This paper claims two supercooled qubits, with memory lasting for 400 nanoseconds. They are presumably cooled with liquid helium, but the paper does not say. The technology is only interesting if it can be scaled up. I doubt it.