These quantum computers are based on two very different technologies. University of Maryland's uses ytterbium ions manipulated by lasers in an electromagnetic trap, while IBM's is based on five small loops of superconductive metal that can be manipulated by microwave signals. Since the tech titan's also has a cloud-based platform that gives the public a way to access it, the U of Maryland team were able to use it for their tests.

Both of them don't have a lot of power yet -- they're but the embryonic forms of their underlying technologies. As University of Oxford physicist Simon Benjamin told Science, though, just the fact that we have two front-running approaches to quantum computing that we can actually compare is a "sign that this technology is maturing."