Universal Design Studio: IBM Q System One

Commissioned to work alongside IBM’s scientists and engineers, Map Project Office and Universal Design Studio have designed the world’s first fully integrated universal quantum computing system for scientific and commercial use – IBM Q System One. The team defined the vision for the system, where the hardware, spaces and interface are considered as a single coherent experience. With the potential to solve problems beyond reach of ‘classical’ computers, current IBM quantum can be accessed through the cloud today. To make them widely usable beyond the confines of the research lab, information processing and the machines that facilitate it needed to be re-imagined. The challenge to Map Project Office and Universal Design Studio was to satisfy the computer’s functional demands, whilst defining the archetype that this new form of computing would require.

Over a period of two years, the design direction and performance criteria for the system were developed in collaboration with specialist display case fabricator Goppion, who helped realise Universal Design Studio’s concept for the outer vitrine and its 3m² glass panels. Engineered to open effortlessly using roto-translation, easy access simplifies the system’s maintenance and upgrade process while minimising downtime. The enclosure forms an air tight seal so the standalone system can carry out one of the most challenging aspects of quantum computing: continuously maintaining the quality of qubits used to perform quantum computations. A second phase of the project, the IBM Q Quantum Computation Center, will open later this year. Read more on universaldesignstudio.com