US-based technology firm IBM has unveiled its new-generation quantum-safe system, IBM z16, to enable the processing of real-time transactions at scale.
With an integrated on-chip AI accelerator for latency-optimised inferencing, IBM z16 enables mission-critical workloads such as credit card, healthcare and financial transactions.
Also, the new tool is specifically designed to help protect against near-future threats that might be used to crack today’s encryption technologies, said the tech firm.
IBM Systems SVP Ric Lewis said: “IBM is the gold standard for highly secured transaction processing. Now with IBM z16 innovations, our clients can increase decision velocity with inferencing right where their mission-critical data lives.
“This opens up tremendous opportunities to change the game in their respective industries so they will be positioned to deliver better customer experiences and more powerful business outcomes.”
The tech company claims that its IBM z16 integrates AI inferencing, through its IBM Telum Processor, with highly secured high-volume transaction processing.
IBM z16 can process 300 billion inference requests per day, with only one millisecond of latency, enabling banks to analyse for fraud during transactions on a big scale.
The new offering leverages IBM’s Pervasive Encryption and Confidential Computing technologies to protect data against future threats associated with quantum computing.
IBM claims that IBM z16 is the industry’s first quantum-safe system, and is supported by lattice-based cryptography to protect data and systems against cyber threats.
It comes with a secure boot, where hackers cannot inject malware into the boot process to take over the system during start-up, enabling its clients to have control of their system.
Also, IBM z16 features the Crypto Express 8S (CEX8S) hardware security module, which provides both classical and quantum-safe cryptographic technology to clients.
The secure boot and quantum-safe cryptography would help mitigate future quantum-computing related threats including harvest now, decrypt later attacks, said IBM.
Last month, HSBC entered into a three-year collaboration with IBM to explore the applications for quantum computing in financial services.