Google on Monday showed off a new quantum computing chip that it said was a breakthrough that could bring practical quantum computing closer to reality.
A custom chip called “Willow” does in minutes what it would take leading supercomputers 10 septillion years to complete, Google Quantum AI (artificial intelligence) founder Hartmut Neven said.
“Written out, there is a 1 with 25 zeros,” Neven said of the time span while briefing journalists.
Photo: AFP via Google
“A mind-boggling number,” Neven added.
Neven’s team of about 300 people at Google is on a mission to build quantum computing capable of handling otherwise unsolvable problems like safe fusion power and stopping climate change.
“We see Willow as an important step in our journey to build a useful quantum computer with practical applications in areas like drug discovery, fusion energy, battery design and more,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on X.
A quantum computer that can tackle these challenges is still years away, but Willow marks a significant step in that direction, Google said.
While still in its early stages, scientists believe that superfast quantum computing would eventually be able to power innovation in a range of fields.
Quantum research is seen as a critical field and the US and China have been investing heavily in the area, while Washington has also placed restrictions on the export of the sensitive technology.
Private and public investment in the field has totaled about US$20 billion worldwide over the past five years, Olivier Ezratty, an independent expert in quantum technologies, said in October.
Regular computers function in binary fashion: They carry out tasks using tiny fragments of data known as bits that are only ever either expressed as 1 or 0.
However, fragments of data on a quantum computer, known as qubits, can be 1 and 0 at the same time — allowing them to crunch an enormous number of potential outcomes simultaneously.
Crucially, Google’s chip demonstrated the ability to reduce computational errors exponentially as it scales up — a feat that has eluded researchers for about 30 years.
The breakthrough in error correction, published in leading science journal Nature, showed that adding more qubits to the system reduced errors rather than increasing them — a fundamental requirement for building practical quantum computers.
Error correction is the “end game” in quantum computing and Google is “confidently progressing” along the path, Google quantum hardware director Julian Kelly said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS