SANTA BARBARA: On Monday, Google announced that it has solved a major math problem that would take a classical computer more time than the universe’s history in five minutes using a new generation of chips.
Alphabet’s Google is pursuing quantum computing because it promises computation speeds significantly quicker than the fastest computers available today, much like other IT behemoths like Microsoft and International Business Machines. Google expects that quantum computers can eventually tackle issues in medicine, battery chemistry, and artificial intelligence that are beyond the capabilities of current computers, even though the math problem solved by the company’s Santa Barbara, California quantum lab does not now have any commercial implications.
The findings, which were made public on Monday, came from a new chip named Willow that contains 105 “qubits,” the fundamental units of quantum computing. Because they can be jostled by even the smallest subatomic particle from events in outer space, qubits are quick yet prone to errors.
These inaccuracies can accumulate to the point where a semiconductor is no more advanced than a standard computer chip as more qubits are crammed onto it. Therefore, researchers have been working on quantum error-correction since the 1990s.
Google claimed to have discovered a method to connect the qubits of the Willow chip in an article that was published on Monday in the journal Nature. This method reduces error rates as the number of qubits increases.
In order to make its quantum machines feasible, the company also claims to be able to rectify mistakes in real time.
