  For the first time in history, we are seeing a branching point in computing
paradigms with the emergence of quantum processing units (QPUs). Extracting the
full potential of computation and realizing quantum algorithms with a
super-polynomial speedup will most likely require major advances in quantum
error correction technology. Meanwhile, achieving a computational advantage in
the near term may be possible by combining multiple QPUs through circuit
knitting techniques, improving the quality of solutions through error
suppression and mitigation, and focusing on heuristic versions of quantum
algorithms with asymptotic speedups. For this to happen, the performance of
quantum computing hardware needs to improve and software needs to seamlessly
integrate quantum and classical processors together to form a new architecture
that we are calling quantum-centric supercomputing. Long term, we see hardware
that exploits qubit connectivity in higher than 2D topologies to realize more
efficient quantum error correcting codes, modular architectures for scaling
QPUs and parallelizing workloads, and software that evolves to make the
intricacies of the technology invisible to the users and realize the goal of
ubiquitous, frictionless quantum computing.
