Google’s Sycamore breakthrough doesn’t spell the end for China’s hopes of winning quantum computer race
- After US tech giant unveiled a chip that dramatically outperformed supercomputers, Chinese researchers announced their own groundbreaking particle experiment
- Team still confident it can achieve what one scientist has described as the ‘holy grail’ of technology and say race between two countries is only just beginning
When Google’s scientists announced last month that they had achieved quantum supremacy – a breakthrough that could revolutionise the future of computing – Chinese scientists countered with news of their own breakthrough in the field.
Quantum computing may one day produce machines capable of performing calculations that are far quicker than any of today’s supercomputers can achieve, and the technology could transform – or disrupt – almost every aspect of society, from health care to finance to the military.
While Chinese scientists admit that the US is still the world’s leader in the field, they said the race to develop what one scientist described as the “holy grail” of science and technology was only just beginning.
The Chinese researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China in the city of Hefei said they had created a light-based simulation, which allowed them to make a calculation on scale 10 billion times greater than the best achieved using traditional methods.
The machine they developed will be the most advanced quantum computer that uses subatomic particles of light to perform calculations.
The announcement came a day after Google said that its groundbreaking Sycamore superconducting quantum chip had taken just 200 seconds to complete a task that the world’s most powerful computer would need 10,000 years to finish.
Their findings, an early version of which was accidentally published by Nasa and later published in full in the journal Nature, showed for the first time that a quantum computer could outperform traditional machines decisively on certain tasks.
The Chinese device, though advanced, is no match for Sycamore in terms of performance.
