Author | China Software Network Zhao Manman
Proofreading | China Software Network Wang Jinbao
Which countries in the world have proven "quantum superiority"?
Only the United States and China. Proving the superiority of quantum is to test quantum computers with extremely complex problems.
Recently, the University of Science and Technology of China announced that it has successfully constructed the "Nine Chapters" of the 76-photon quantum computing prototype. It only takes 200 seconds to solve the mathematical algorithm "Gaussian Bose Sampling", while solving the same problem with the world's fastest The supercomputer of China will take 600 million years. This achievement made my country the second country in the world to achieve "quantum superiority" after the United States.
In the eyes of experts, although the proof of "quantum superiority" is regarded as a "a milestone turning point" in quantum computing from theory to practice, at present, quantum computers are still in the prototype stage, and they are still going to be applied. "The journey of Wanli is only one step."
In contrast, cloud service providers such as Amazon Cloud Services and Microsoft have launched cloud services for quantum computing, which means that quantum computing has a strong meaning. After all, any computing is the service content of cloud computing.
Chinasoft.com believes that quantum computers and quantum computing cloud services are the "two fulcrums" of the development of quantum computing. One is the development of technology and the other is the promotion of commercial applications, which will promote the progress of quantum computing.
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Every breakthrough brings surprises to mankind
As the frontier field of science and technology in the world, the development of quantum computers is the focus of competition among countries in the world.
The first focus is to prove "quantum superiority". Some American scientists and politicians call it "quantum hegemony" or "quantum priority".
Proving the "quantum superiority" is to actually show that quantum computers are more superior than traditional supercomputers.
谷歌Sycamore
In October 2019, Google announced that its chip called Sycamore had achieved "quantum hegemony" for the first time by performing tasks that traditional computers could not complete.
According to Google, Sycamore used only 53 qubits to complete a difficult computing task in just a few minutes , while the most advanced supercomputer at present, the IBM Summit, took 10,000 years and it was impossible to complete.
Google believes that this is a major technological breakthrough, and even compares it to the Wright brothers’ first flight and the Soviet Union’s first artificial satellite. This breakthrough ushered in a new era of computer development.
In this regard, IBM researchers immediately questioned this, believing that on a traditional computer with enough hard drives, the IBM Summit can complete the simulation of the Google task within 2.5 days.
Unlike Google's use of superconducting qubits, China's "Nine Chapters" use optical qubits . Relevant experts said that the two use optics and superconductivity as the physical system for constructing quantum computers, but they have different technical routes. At present, it is impossible to judge which is better.
But no matter what the technological route is, experts believe that China’s manufacturing of a quantum computer with 76 qubits is a major scientific achievement, which also shows that China is in the “first echelon” of the world in the field of quantum computing.
IBM Q System One
In January 2019, at the 2019 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), IBM showed a model of its latest quantum computer, the IBM Q System One. The IBM Q System One is a fourth-generation 20-qubit machine, which is still an experimental hardware system.
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Why are quantum computers so powerful?
Over the past 50 years, the miniaturization of integrated circuits has confirmed Intel co-founder Gordon Moore’s prediction that the number of transistors on a chip will double every 24 months.
However, in recent years experts have worried that if transistors approach the atomic level, will we reach certain limits of development? To this end, semiconductor companies use various technologies to keep Moore's Law alive, one of which is the development of quantum computing.
So, what exactly is quantum computing? Many people will answer, not sure what quantum computing is. Don't worry, you are not alone, and experts have not given a complete and authoritative statement.
Simply put, a quantum computer is a fast computer beyond imagination, capable of solving seemingly unsolvable problems. For example, if you think that a smart phone today is more powerful than a computer the size of a room in the 1980s, then quantum computers will make our current state-of-the-art computers look like the Stone Age. This is the leap that quantum computing represents.
According to relevant information, in essence, traditional computers are very fast versions of the simplest electronic calculators. They can only process one "bit" of information at a time, in the form of binary 1 or 0. Each bit is like an on/off, 0 means "off" and 1 means "on". Every task you complete on a traditional computer, no matter how complicated, will end up using millions of bits, each representing 0 or 1.
First, quantum computers do not rely on bits, but use "qubits." Currently, quantum computers use physical systems such as atoms, ions, and photons. Different types of quantum computers use different particles. Due to the miracle of quantum mechanics, qubits are not limited to being turned on or off. They can exist at the same time or in between. This is because quantum computing uses special phenomena that occur at the subatomic level, especially the ability of quantum particles to exist in multiple states at the same time, also known as "superposition."
This means that even with today's fastest computers, quantum computers can process more scenarios in less time.
Secondly, the current method of processing data by electronic computers is serial operation, that is, the memory can only store one number, and the operation becomes another number at a time, so the operation is step by step.
The quantum computer is in principle parallel processing . One operation can change the Nth power of 2 data into another Nth power of 2 data. Therefore, operating a quantum computer is equivalent to operating the Nth power of the electronic computer 2 in series. .
In an interview with CCTV, Academician Pan Jianwei stated that the goal of the first milestone in the field of quantum computing is to demonstrate the superiority of quantum computers. I hope that a universal quantum computer can be developed through 15 to 20 years of hard work, so that it can be used to solve many very wide-ranging problems, such as cryptanalysis, weather forecasting, and drug design.
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The benefits and risks of quantum computing
Reaching quantum superiority is obviously an important milestone, but there is still a long way to go before commercial quantum computers are put on the market. Currently, quantum computing work is limited to laboratories and major technology companies such as Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
Most experts will admit that humans have not yet fully understood how quantum computing will change our world, we just know that it will change the world. It can be said that in the past few years, although quantum computing has become a hot topic, there is no reason to believe that quantum computers will soon be used in daily life.
If quantum computers are put into application, they can be fully utilized in the following application areas, such as:
Strengthen network security. Quantum computers can change the landscape of data security by creating almost indestructible encryption.
Accelerate artificial intelligence. Quantum computing can greatly promote the development of artificial intelligence, because these ultra-high-speed computers will be more effective in identifying data patterns.
Model traffic flow to improve urban congestion. Modeling traffic is a very complex process, which involves a large number of variables, but researchers at Volkswagen have been running a quantum pilot program to model and optimize traffic flows in Beijing, Barcelona, and downtown Lisbon.
Make the weather forecast more accurate. Almost everything involving complex modeling can be improved through quantum computing. The Met Office said that quantum computers provide the potential for more advanced modeling, which is one of the ways to explore the next generation of prediction systems.
Develop new drugs. Biotechnology startup ProteinQure has been exploring the potential of quantum computing in modeling proteins, a key pathway for drug development. Quantum computing may lead to the discovery of some effective new drugs, which can be used to solve intractable diseases facing humans, including cancer and heart disease.
Quantum computing may bring many exciting opportunities in the future. So, are we ready?
Simply put, quantum computers use the unique way that matter exhibits at the subatomic level to perform calculations at extraordinary speeds. In theory, they can one day make substantial progress in materials science, artificial intelligence, medicine, finance, communications, logistics and other fields.
Quantum computers also bring some risks worthy of attention. First, the global quantum computing race is heating up, bringing unforeseen consequences.
A more distant concern is that advanced quantum computers may one day threaten the public key cryptography that protects information in the entire digital world. These systems are based on mathematical problems, and quantum computers may theoretically be able to crack them easily. Security researchers are very aware of this issue and are working hard to create "post-quantum" systems and standards.
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Quantum computing cloud services are coming
Simultaneously with the development of quantum computers, quantum computing cloud services are progressing smoothly.
Amazon cloud service AWS announced its entry into this field in 2019, and launched its first quantum computing service Braket in August 2020. The famous theoretical physicist Paul Dirac founded Braket's standard quantum symbol in the late 1930s, and AWS named the service after it.
Since the second half of 2019, Amazon Braket has been in a private preview state. However, Amazon AWS recently announced its general availability. Customers can purchase quantum computing services directly from the Amazon Braket platform.
Braket is a fully managed AWS service that provides a technology-independent environment. It provides customers with the ability to design, develop, test and run their quantum algorithms. Braket also provides a simulated quantum computer using Amazon EC2 computing resources, and can simulate up to 34 qubits for testing and troubleshooting algorithms.
This service can help cloud customers try to run quantum algorithms on AWS. After designing the algorithm, customers can choose to run on quantum processing systems built by other companies (including D-Wave Systems Inc., IonQ Inc. and Rigetti Computing). At the time, Amazon had not announced plans to build its own computer.
Among Amazon Braket quantum hardware providers, D-Wave runs a quantum annealing processor with 2048 qubits, IonQ provides a gate-based ion trap quantum computer with 11 qubits, and Rigetti Computing provides a gate-based superconducting quantum processor.
Amazon Braket is not the only quantum cloud service.
IBM has a huge 22 superconducting quantum computers. In 2016, IBM was the first company to put quantum computers online. In addition to providing quality services, most of IBM's quantum systems as well as complete tutorials and a large number of useful algorithm libraries are publicly available. According to IBM, billions of quantum circuits are running on its network every month.
Microsoft Azure Quantum provides cloud services similar to Braket. However, its platform is still being previewed by some customers. The Azure platform provides a variety of ion trapping technologies from Honeywell Quantum Solutions and IonQ, and superconducting hardware from Quantum Circuits, Inc. (QCI). Honeywell Quantum Solutions recently announced that it has the world’s most powerful quantum computer with a quantum volume of 64.
Since March 2020, although Google Cloud Platform provides TensorFlow Quantum (a library for building quantum machine learning models), Google Cloud has not yet included general-purpose quantum computing services.
When will China's cloud service providers launch such services?
There is no doubt that entering the era of quantum computing will face many insurmountable problems. However, as many companies have shown, technology is evolving bit by bit and leads us into a mysterious world.