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Chinese scientists make quantum leap with first practical use computer
- The 24-qubit Wuyuan is based on superconducting chip technology and was delivered to an unknown user more than a year ago
- Company founder Guo Guoping says the technology will produce visible benefits to daily life within three to five years
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Zhang Tongin Beijing
China has become the third country – after Canada and the US – capable of delivering a complete computer system using game changing quantum technology, according to a state media report on Monday.
The country’s first practical quantum computer – the 24-qubit Wuyuan, based on superconducting chip technology – was delivered to an unnamed user more than a year ago, the science ministry’s newspaper Science and Technology Daily said.
It was the first official confirmation that this disruptive technology – which uses elemental particles called qubits to replace the 0 and 1 used in traditional computing – has been used in a real-life application in China. No details were given of the user or the computer’s potential applications.
The report said Origin Quantum, a company founded in 2017 by Guo Guoping and Guo Guangcan – leading quantum physicists with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) – had developed several computers since delivering the Wuyuan in 2021.
The unparalleled computing power of quantum technology is expected to transform many areas, but its numerous technical challenges have led some scientists to believe that a practical machine is still years, if not decades away.
Previous quantum processors – Google’s Sycamore and the photonic quantum computer Jiuzhang, built by Pan Jianwei at the USTC in Hefei, Anhui province – have proven their ability to surpass classical computers in solving specific mathematical questions.
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