Microsoft’s quantum chip got an upgrade. Critics are still skeptical Error woes that plague quantum computers may be solved by using the math of topology Errors are a big problem for quantum computers, befuddling calculations and hindering the machines’ potential to outperform traditional computers. Microsoft’s new quantum chip could bring hope — for those who believe the company’s claims. Microsoft has unveiled an improved version of its quantum chip, which is designed to resist errors. But the upgrade hasn’t convinced harsh critics of the company’s previous efforts. Last year, Microsoft reported that it had developed a new kind of a quantum chip that protects information based on principles of topology, the field of mathematics dealing with the geometry of structures with holes. That claim immediately drew skepticism from scientists. In the new chip, announced June 2 at Microsoft’s Build conference in San Francisco, researchers swapped some of the materials used to create the chip’s quantum bits, or qubits. In particular, the team used lead instead of aluminum as a superconductor, a material that transmits electricity without resistance at low temperature. Those swaps improved a property called the parity lifetime, a marker of the quality of a topological qubit. These qubits are built from tiny superconducting wires, and the parity indicates whether there is an even or odd number of electrons within the wire. The lifetime indicates how long the parity is maintained before being spoiled by random jitter or outside influences. Previously, the qubit’s parity lifetime was measured in milliseconds; now, it is around 20 seconds, Microsoft researchers report in a paper posted on a Microsoft website and at arXiv.org. The paper is a preprint, so has yet to be peer-reviewed. “We’re seeing this more than 1000x improvement in this critical metric of the qubit based on this change,” Microsoft