The new chip was created in Intel's D1D Fab in Oregon using the same silicon manufacturing techniques that the company has perfected for creating billions of traditional computer chips. Smaller than a pencil's eraser, it is the tiniest quantum computing chip Intel has made.

The new spin qubit chip runs at the extremely low temperatures required for quantum computing: roughly 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit – 250 times colder than space.

Spin qubits are very small (about 50 nanometers across) and visible only under an electron microscope. About 1,500 qubits could fit across the diameter of a single human hair.

The design for new Intel spin qubit chip could be dramatically scaled up. Future quantum computers will have millions of qubits — and will be vastly more powerful than today's fastest supercomputers.