We've got another quantum computing milestone to report, with researchers in China unveiling a super-advanced 66-qubit quantum supercomputer called Zuchongzhi, which by one important metric is the most powerful machine of its kind we've seen to date.
The performance of Zuchongzhi is undoubtedly impressive: it finished a designated quantum benchmark task in around 70 minutes, and its creators claim the world's most powerful 'classical' (non-quantum) supercomputer to date would need around eight years to get through the same set of calculations.
That means Zuchongzhi can claim quantum supremacy, a status in quantum computing that indicates a machine can complete tasks beyond the best classical computers. It's a bar that's been reached before, but very rarely.
"Our work establishes an unambiguous quantum computational advantage that is infeasible for classical computation in a reasonable amount of time," the researchers explain in a preprint paper describing the experiment.
"The high-precision and programmable quantum computing platform opens a new door to explore novel many-body phenomena and implement complex quantum algorithms."
By DAVID NIELD on Science Alert
Image Source: The Verge