Chinese scientists have achieved “quantum advantage” using a new computer with a speed 10 billion times faster than Google’s.

A team led by Pan Jianwei and Lu Chaoyang of the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei published an essay detailing their achievement in Science magazine on Thursday.

Their machine, named “Jiuzhang,” was able to perform a type of computing called Gaussian boson sampling, that can complete in minutes calculations that no ordinary computer could accomplish within a reasonable amount of time.

The team started studying quantum computers in 2017. Using the Jiuzhang computer, which can generate up to 76 output photon clicks, it would only take 200 seconds to accomplish what the Japanese Fugaku supercomputer — the world’s most powerful classical computer — would take 600 million years to complete, according to the essay.

Google first achieved quantum advantage with its 53 qubits processor in October last year. Jiuzhang’s speed would be 10 billion times faster than Google’s.

Development in quantum computing may bring breakthroughs in code deciphering, big data, material design, drug analysis, among others.

Lu said in an interview earlier that one of the difficulties in successfully developing quantum computers was in the tiny margins for error, which he described as akin to getting 50 horses to race for 100 kilometers (62 miles) and to not deviate from the course by the width of a thread of hair.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play