Microsoft announced Majorana 1, an entirely new technology that’s clearly about to change the world. But some gamers may not quite understand, what does this have to do with video games? We’ll explain what we can here.
As Microsoft explained on their news blog, they were able to create a quantum chip in Majorana 1 that contains topological qubits. Without getting too caught up in the technical jargon, this was a technological leap that took Microsoft twenty years to develop from being theoretical to reality.
The quantum chip’s secret sauce is the qubit, a kind of particle that’s infinitesimal in size, but can also be used for calculations. Microsoft found a way to make qubits that their peers thought was impossible or futile.
Their topoconductor, or topological superconductor, makes the qubits stable by making it reach a topological state. The qubits do not become solid, liquid, or gas, but a new, secret fourth state, that Microsoft invented.
At this point, we know some of you are wondering if you’re reading some ARG prompt, or if this is some elaborate hoax. But Microsoft shared proof of peer review of their work, and is currently doing the news circuit to help the world understand their achievement, which sounds completely science fiction, is very real.
Microsoft also explains that they mainly see this technology being used in quantum level applications. They see it making the calculations that current computers and data centers can’t do to solve high level global and social problems. So, if you see Microsoft talk about their new qubit based computer solving problems like microplastics, this is what they mean. The supercomputers we have now have also solved a lot of society’s problems, and yes, we imagine some of you didn’t realize this until now. Supercomputers have helped in predicting the weather, climate research, making new drugs, researching DNA, etc.
But perhaps what’s most interesting is how small Majorana 1 actually is. Microsoft has been eager to show off that it fits in the palm of an adult hand. Now, we don’t think this technology will be ready to use in the next generation of Xbox after the Xbox Series X|S. But clearly Microsoft can take learnings from making Majorana 1 in making their own hardware.
In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to speculate that Microsoft has already been studying what they can use from the two decades they worked on in making Majorana 1 in making new Surface and Xbox devices. Microsoft will likely still be using off the shelf parts or ordering parts from manufacturers like TSMC or AMD, but they clearly have a technological edge Sony, Nintendo, Apple, Valve, and others would envy to have.
And taking all of this into account, it now seems strange to believe that Microsoft has given up on Xbox hardware. Clearly, Microsoft is more than capable of making powerful hardware that AMD can’t match, at all. What it boils down to, then, is how Microsoft decides to carry over their technologies and knowledge from their research division to the benefit of their consumer products.
