GOOGLE says it has achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing research, but IBM has already challenged the claims.
The technology giant said an experimental quantum processor took just a few minutes to complete a calculation that would take a traditional supercomputer thousands of years.
The findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, show that “quantum speed-up is achievable in a real-world system”, the researchers wrote.
Quantum computing is a complex technology which applies quantum physics to expand the traditional “on/off” binary computations for vastly sped-up information processing.
Quantum computers could revolutionise tasks that would take existing computers years, including the hunt for new drugs and optimising city and transportation planning.
The technique relies on quantum bits, or qubits, which can register data values of zero and one – the language of modern computing – simultaneously.
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Big tech companies including Google, Microsoft, IBM and Intel are avidly pursuing the technology.
“Quantum things can be in multiple places at the same time,” said Chris Monroe, a University of Maryland physicist who is also the founder of quantum start-up IonQ. “The rules are very simple, they’re just confounding.”
Google’s findings, however, are already facing pushback from other industry researchers. A version of Google’s paper leaked online last month.
IBM quickly took issue with Google’s claim that it had achieved “quantum supremacy”, a term that refers to a point when a quantum computer can perform a calculation that a traditional computer cannot complete in its lifetime.
Google’s leaked paper showed that its quantum processor, Sycamore, finished a calculation in three minutes and 20 seconds – and that it would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to do the same thing. But IBM researchers say that Google underestimated the conventional supercomputer, called Summit, and said it could actually do the calculation in two and a half days. Summit was developed by IBM and is located in Tennessee.
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