We could be standing at the gate of a new computer era. Apparently, Google has achieved quantum supremacy by solving an extremely difficult equation which was even impossible for the most advanced super computer. Possibly, quantum computers are able to solve tasks normal computers are not able to.
Quantum computing takes the possibility of subatomic particles to exists in more than one state at the time. Due to the behavior of these subatomic particles, operations can be done quicker by using less energy than normal computers. In normal computers a bit is a single piece of information that can exist in either 1 or 0. Instead of using these two states quantum computing uses quantum bits, called qubits. Imagine normal bits, 0 and 1, being two poles of the sphere, qubits can be any point on this sphere. This means a qubit can store much more information than a normal bit can (Wired 2018).
Last week a document appeared on the NASA-server describing a quantum processor called Sycamore, which consists of 54 qubits. These 54 qubits were used to control a probability sample, which, according to the document, would take world’s best super computer 10.000 years while Sycamore completed this task in 3 minutes and 20 seconds. However, the experiment was a proof-of-concept-test (NewScientist 2019) .
If the rumor is correct and Google actually reached quantum supremacy, this could be used in various fields such as artificial intelligence, chemistry and mathematics. For example, quantum computers can be used in order to solve extremely complicated mathematical problems like finding very large prime numbers. Furthermore, can be used to model chemical problems, or designing completely new molecules for medicines. Concluding, quantum computing may be a solution to a whole lot of technological problems. However, Google did not yet respond to any of the rumors, so the world is curious to see what’s next.
“Google claims it has finally reached quantum supremacy” (2019) Accessed on 24 September 2019 on https://www.newscientist.com/article/2217347-google-claims-it-has-finally-reached-quantum-supremacy/
“What are quantum computers and how do they work?” (2018) Accessed on 24 September 2019 on https://www.wired.co.uk/article/quantum-computing-explained
