China claims quantum computing lead with Jiuzhang photon test, creating machine ‘one trillion times faster’ than next best supercomputer

Name: 'Quantum leap' for China satellite
Uploaded: 2020-12-04T14:00:18.000Z
Duration: 1 min 1 s
Description: 'Quantum leap' for China satellite

Researchers said their prototype took a little over three minutes to complete a task that would take the world’s fastest conventional machine 600 million years.

Results put the country firmly at the forefront of the field, lead scientist says

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Scientists in China have published new results from tests on the Jiuzhang quantum computer. Photo: University of Science and Technology of China

Stephen Chen

Published: 10:00pm, 4 Dec 2020Updated: 1:08am, 5 Dec 2020

Chinese physicists say they have built a quantum computer one trillion times faster than the most powerful supercomputer, with potential for some real-life applications.

The researchers said that using a process called “Gaussian boson sampling”, their Jiuzhang prototype quantum computer took a little over three minutes to complete a task that the world’s fastest conventional machine would not be able to complete in 600 million years.

“This achievement firmly established our country’s leading position in international quantum computing research,” a team of researchers led by Professor Pan Jianwei said in a statement introducing a paper published on the website of the Science magazine on Friday.

Quantum computers rely on some counter-intuitive physics of the subatomic world, and are extremely fragile and difficult to maintain.

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'Quantum leap' for China satellite

However, conventional computers struggle to cope with problems that involve uncertainty, such as predicting the rise and fall of the stock market, simulating the vibration of some elusive atoms, tracing the origin of a new-found virus, or guessing a bank account password.