Google paper claims ‘quantum supremacy’ has been achieved

A paper published on a Nasa website, before being quickly removed, has described Google’s apparently successful project to build a quantum computer that reaches quantum supremacy.

- Quantum computers make use of quantum-mechanical phenomena such as superposition to carry out calculations rapidly. Quantum computers use ‘qubits’ instead of bits: while bits can be either a 0 or a 1, a qubit can represent 0, 1, or any superposition of these two states. While quantum computers are in the early stages of development, a quantum computer could theoretically perform calculations exponentially faster than a classical computer.

- Quantum supremacy is a milestone in quantum computing, referring to the ability of quantum computers to perform calculates which would not be possible using classical computers.

- The Google paper describing this achievement, which was briefly made available on a Nasa website before being removed (Google and Nasa collaborate on developing quantum hardware), was reported on by the Financial Times.

- According to the paper, Google engineers created a quantum computer with 54 qubits – of which 53 were functional – nicknamed ‘Sycamore’. This is a successor to Google’s previous 72-qubit ‘Bristlecone’, which did not achieve the milestone. The computer was used to perform calculations - performing random operations and printing the results - in 200 seconds which would have taken the most advanced supercomputers an estimated 10,000 years. However, it is worth noting that the calculations were performed on a supercooled quantum rig designed specifically for this purpose and which does not also function as a general-purpose computer.

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