Quantum Computing: The Global Race Intensifies

How far are we away from practical quantum computing? Most scientists say at least a decade.

Alastair Williams, science journalist, for example, recently asked rhetorically on Medium: “How long until that future [of practical quantum computers] arrives? Most current quantum computers have around a hundred qubits at most. That might increase to a thousand or so over the next few years, but quantum computers that are actually useful are probably at least a decade away. For now our classical world is safe.”

But the pace of the science seems to be moving quickly. Or at least the hype is increasing. On nearly a daily basis, groups around the globe are announcing ‘breakthroughs’ in the science and capabilities of quantum computing.

In just the last two weeks, there have been announcements:

Chinese at the University of Science and Technology in Shanghai announced a 2D programmable computer that can use up to 66 qubits. The team reported that “the sampling task finished by Zuchongzhi in about 1.2 hours will take the most powerful supercomputer at least eight years… The high-precision and programmable quantum computing platform opens a new door to explore novel many-body phenomena and implement complex quantum algorithms.”

Europeans at the University of Innsbruck announced the smallest quantum computer with 24 qubits. The tiny size was created by using calcium ions as qubits.

European scientists announced work that makes more practical a different kind of qubit called a ‘spin qubit’. The technique layers silicon and germanium just a few nanometers thick. The technique could be used in semiconductor devices.

A team of Quantum Computer researchers from Harvard and MIT announced what they are calling a ‘progrmmable quantum simulator’ that uses 256 qubits. The system is an upgrade of one developed by the team in 2017 based no 51 qubits. Sepehr Ebadi, physics student and lead author of the projects, said that “the number of quantum states that are possible with only 256 qubits exceeds the number of atoms in the solar system. This work enables a vast number of new scientific directions. We are nowhere near the limits of what can be done with these systems.”

Tout Wang, researcher for the Harvard team said that “our work is part of a really intense, high-visibility global race to build bigger and better quantum computer. The overall effort [beyond our own] has top academic research institutions involved and major private-sector investment from Google, IBM, Amazon, and many others. “