Google’s quantum computing lab has developed a new Willow chip that can complete a computational task in less than five minutes — a process that the company says would take one of the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years (a ten with 24 zeros), which exceeds the age of the universe.
Google’s quantum computing lab has developed a new Willow chip that can complete a computational task in less than five minutes — a process that the company says would take one of the world’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years (a ten with 24 zeros), which exceeds the age of the universe.
Google says its new quantum chip, just 4 cm square, contains key «breakthroughs» and «paves the way for a useful, large-scale quantum computer».
In addition to the powerful performance, the researchers also found a way to reduce the number of errors, which Google calls «one of the biggest challenges in quantum computing.» Instead of bits representing either 1 or 0, quantum computing uses qubits—units that can be in multiple states at once, such as 1, 0, and something in between.
As Google notes, qubits are error-prone because they «tend to exchange information rapidly with the environment.» However, Google researchers found a way to reduce the number of errors by introducing more qubits into the system and were able to correct them in real time, writes The Verge.
Google’s next goal is to perform the first «useful, non-classical» calculations that are both «relevant to real-world applications» and cannot be performed by ordinary computers.
