The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Microsoft and Quantinuum say they have achieved a key step in making quantum computers a commercial reality by making them more reliable. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that various tech giants including Microsoft, Google's Alphabet and IBM are competing with one another, as well as with governments, to develop quantum computing. Quantum computers use the principles of quantum mechanics to compute at much higher speeds than conventional silicon-based computers. This latest move is a step toward achieving this goal. Those quantum machines could make feasible scientific calculations that would otherwise take millions of years with today's classical computers. However, the fundamental unit of quantum computers -- called a "qubit" -- is fast but finicky, producing data errors if the quantum computer is even slightly disturbed. Microsoft and Quantinuum say they have made a breakthrough in that field. Microsoft applied an error-correction algorithm that it wrote to Quantinuum's physical qubits, yielding about four reliable qubits from 30 physical ones. Microsoft said it plans to release the technology to its cloud computing customers in the coming months.