While it might seem that your computer malfunctions every few minutes, the reality is that modern computers are usually quite robust. Not so much for quantum computers, where qubit life is often measured in milliseconds. Now, the company claims to have qubits that last for about 20 seconds.

For example, Microsoft’s Majorana 1 quantum chip, which, incidentally, was mired in controversy, provided 8 qubits that were stable very briefly. This second-generation chip provides 12 qubits that average 20-second lifespans.

Microsoft claims to use topological superconductors based on Majorana modes. However, despite claims, some researchers think the technology is using Andreev modes and does not contain any Majorana modes, although this is apparently debatable. Despite retracting an earlier paper, the company appears to stand by its claim that it is producing Majorana fermions.

The biggest problem, of course, is that to be practical, you will need millions of qubits instead of 8 or 12. That’s in addition to better fault tolerance, error correction, and other operational details. So raw qubit count can be misleading, but Fujitsu has a 256-qubit system and is on track to install one with 1,000 qubits this year, although redundancy probably cuts the number of logical qubits quite a bit. Microsoft claims it will have a commercially viable machine by 2029.

Until you can get your hands on a real quantum computer, there’s always simulation.