Google has announced the development of a new quantum computing chip called Willow.

The company announced that Willow can solve mathematical problems in five minutes that would take a traditional supercomputer 10 septillion years. This is a period many times longer than the age of the universe.

quantum leap

An important milestone that Google passed was the Random Circuit Sampling (RCS) benchmark.

A “qubit” is the basic unit of information in a quantum computer. Historically, the more qubits a quantum computer uses, the more errors it makes. But Google says its latest advances have reversed that trend. Now, as the system scales up, errors are decreasing.

“What we’re able to do with quantum error correction is a really important milestone,” said Julian Kelly, director of quantum hardware at Google Quantum AI. “This has been a big challenge for 30 years, ever since the idea of ​​quantum error correction was conceived in the mid-90s.”

The potential impacts are far-reaching. Google says quantum computing could eventually be used to develop new medicines, accelerate clean energy technology and advance cybersecurity. The technology’s ability to process huge datasets at unprecedented speeds could also have a major impact on machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Challenges to practical application

Despite this breakthrough, it is still far from practical application. Most experts agree that fully fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of processing real-world applications are still years away.

One of the big challenges is scaling up the number of qubits while keeping error rates low. Current quantum systems, including Google’s Willow, use logical qubits, which are collections of physical qubits that work together to reduce errors. Google’s demo showed that the error rate decreases as the size of the logical qubit increases. However, creating a single logical qubit may require hundreds or thousands of physical qubits. Experts believe that a truly useful quantum system would require millions of physical qubits. This introduces significant complexity in terms of hardware, cooling systems, and error correction protocols.

Another challenge is that quantum computers are currently limited in the range of problems they can solve. The Random Circuit Sampling (RCS) benchmark used to test Willow is widely considered a technical demonstration rather than a practical tool for real-world applications. This does not lead directly to commercial use, nor does it prove that the system can tackle industry-relevant tasks.

market reaction

Market reaction to this announcement was swift. Alphabet stock rose more than 5% on Tuesday and is up more than 33% year-to-date. Analysts have suggested that Google’s clear lead in quantum error correction could strengthen its advantage over competitors such as IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon and Honeywell.

Hartmut Neven, founder and leader of Google Quantum AI, said:[Q]uantum processors are gaining ground at an exponential rate of 2x and will continue to significantly outperform traditional computers as they scale up. ”