{"id":8621,"date":"2021-10-27T20:11:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T20:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1371301"},"modified":"2021-10-27T20:11:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T20:11:33","slug":"china-says-it-has-a-quantum-computer-a-million-times-more-powerful-than-googles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8621","title":{"rendered":"China says it has a quantum computer a million times more powerful than Google\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China recently published a paper indicating they\u2019ve created a quantum computer that\u2019s one million times faster than Google\u2019s Sycamore machine.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a report from the Global Times<\/a>, the Chinese system \u201cis 10 million times faster than the current fastest supercomputer and its calculation complexity is more than 1 million times higher than Google\u2019s Sycamore processor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

File under:<\/strong><\/span>Huge, if true.<\/i><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be up front here, I\u2019m not a quantum physicist. So take the grain of salt I\u2019m about to feed you with a separate, larger grain of salt.<\/p>\n

The claims coming out of China are credible and the research paper<\/a> appears to be totally legit. But I still don\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/strong> the researchers built a 66-qubit quantum computer. Using two different technological paradigms, photonic and superconducting, they were able to run specific algorithms at a scale which would supposedly be too complex for a classical computer to accomplish.<\/p>\n

For comparison, Google\u2019s Sycamore system is a 53-qubit system and, according to the Chinese research team, it can only use the superconducting paradigm.<\/p>\n

Background:<\/strong> uh, when did we start calling this stuff \u201cquantum primacy?\u201d I\u2019ve been covering quantum computing for years now and this is a new one by me.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ve seen the odd scholarly article suggesting the term over the more popular \u201cquantum supremacy.\u201d But I thought we\u2019d all decided that \u201cquantum advantage\u201d was the proper term because most experts agree that quantum computers will never truly replace classical ones, but augment them instead.<\/p>\n

Anyhoo, quantum \u201cprimacy\u201d is basically the ability for a quantum system to perform a feat that a classical one either couldn\u2019t or would take an absurd amount time such as 30 trillion years to complete.<\/p>\n

And, most famously, Google and NASA \u201cleaked\u201d<\/a> (big air quotes on that one) that the Search giant\u2019s \u201cBristlecone\u201d system had achieved quantum supremacy<\/i> over classical computers back in 2019.<\/p>\n

But IBM, the owner of the classical supercomputer that Google and NASA claimed its systems had beaten, rebutted these claims in a blog post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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In the paper, it is argued that their device reached \u201cquantum supremacy\u201d and that \u201ca state-of-the-art supercomputer would require approximately 10,000 years to perform the equivalent task.\u201d<\/p>\n

We argue that an ideal simulation of the same task can be performed on a classical system in 2.5 days and with far greater fidelity. This is in fact a conservative, worst-case estimate, and we expect that with additional refinements the classical cost of the simulation can be further reduced.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To this day there are plenty of tech \u201cexperts\u201d who only tell the Google\/NASA side of that episode.<\/p>\n

And that brings us to 25 October, 2021, and the news out of China.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the deal?<\/strong> Is it real? Quantum physicist Barry Sanders, the director of the Institute for Quantum Science and Technology at the University of Calgary, seems to be over the Moon concerning this news.<\/p>\n

Writing for APS Physics, they said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The two major results by the \u2026 group push experimental quantum computing to far larger problem sizes, making it much harder to find classical algorithms and classical computers that can keep up. The results take us further toward trusting claims that we have indeed reached the age of computational quantum primacy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Sanders goes on to recognize the debate over quantum advantage, even mentioning the IBM and Google beef. But they seem pretty convinced this is the real deal and, evidently, base their observations on the idea that two paradigms are better than one.<\/p>\n

But are they really? The types of algorithms being run aren\u2019t particularly useful in the everyday world outside of a research lab. They\u2019re essentially really giant math problems that can be made exponentially more difficult.<\/p>\n

According to the Chinese researchers\u2019 paper, their systems achieved primacy based on their estimates that they could run algorithms in minutes that would take the world\u2019s fastest supercomputers 10,000 years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the same thing Google said about IBM\u2019s supercomputer.<\/p>\n

Quick take:<\/strong> \u201cQuantum primacy\u201d is a made up buzz-term without any real merit. We haven\u2019t reached a point where the world\u2019s declared a dead-end to classical computing nor have we maxed-out our collective ability to tune, tweak, and optimize algorithms.<\/p>\n

This means anyone claiming to be able to run an algorithm that would take a classical system 10,000 years to run in seconds is usually engaging in what I like to call \u201chyperbole by omission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, the quantum computer might be able to run an algorithm that could<\/i> take a classical system 10,000 years to run. But the chances are pretty good that one of the many organizations with a supercomputer are going to clap back within the next couple of weeks with a counterpoint on optimization just like IBM did.<\/p>\n

And one imagines Google has every incentive to debunk the idea that China\u2018s completely eclipsed their alleged accomplishments. Let\u2019s just wait and see what happens shall we?<\/p>\n

It does bear mentioning that, quantum primacy claims aside, this is incredible research. This paper almost surely represents a major breakthrough in quantum computing. And, once the dust all settles, it\u2019ll be interesting to see where the team goes from here.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China recently published a paper indicating they\u2019ve created a quantum computer that\u2019s one million times faster than Google\u2019s Sycamore machine. According to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}