Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Google and IBM Battle for Quantum Supremacy

Building a #quantumcomputer that can outperform conventional systems on certain types of algorithms looks to be tantalizingly close. As it stands today, #Google and #IBM appear to be the most likely candidates to claim that achievement. Recent proclamations by John Martinis, the lead of Google’s quantum computing research group, suggests the search giant is close to hitting that goal. At a recent meeting of the American Physical Society in March, he laid out a path to building a 49-qubit computer before the end of the year. Martinis believes 49 qubits should be enough to demonstrate quantum supremacy, the term that describes the ability of these systems to run a number of important algorithms, such as Shor’s algorithm, that classical computers are unable to tackle. In Google’s case, the underlying technology is based on superconducting circuitry using aluminum wires. The company has a working nine-qubit system in-house today, and thinks the technology is ready for the next step. In an April 2017 article in MIT Technology Review, Martinis noted: “That process is all working. Now we’re ready to kind of move fast.”

https://www.top500.org/news/google-and-ibm-battle-for-quantum-supremacy/

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