A refrigerator preserves your food for a while, a freezer preserves your frozen foods quite a bit longer, and a deep freezer can keep your food frozen and preserved for a very long time. None of these are nearly cold enough for quantum computing, though.
A cryostat is a refrigerator on steroids. It has a dilution unit that mixes helium-3 with helium-4 and lowers its temperature to 10mK. That’s 10 thousandths of a degree above absolute zero, which is the coldest temperature possible in the universe, even colder than outer space.
Our Quantum Processing Unit (QPU), or “chip,” is sealed by several vacuum cans and shields that protect against external electromagnetism. All of the air is then removed, leaving the chip in a vacuum environment. The refrigerator then begins cooling through five temperature stages: “”VC”” (Vacuum Can), “”50K””, “”4K””, “”Still””, and “”MXC”” (Mixing Chamber). Each stage progressively reduces the temperature until the lowest temperature is reached inside the MXC (around 10mK), which houses the chip. The intermediate stages house the DC and RF circuits that power the chip and connect its ports to the measuring instruments. None of the stages house meats, dairy, fruits, or vegetables -shockingly.