47 years faster: the results of the exceptional Sycamore, the Google supercomputer
Researchers working on Google's quantum computer Sycamore have said the latest iteration is capable of doing complex calculations in seconds that would typically take the fastest supercomputers about "47 years". The results were posted on a scientific research server and were not peer reviewed.
The company has been dedicated to this field for several years and reached a similar milestone in 2019 when it unveiled the Sycamore quantum computer, powered by 53 qubits.
Qubit is short for quantum bit, the smallest unit of data in a quantum computer. Unlike the bits in a binary computer which can be either a "0" or a "1", a qubit can be both 0 and 1 at the same time, allowing complex calculations to be performed at astonishing speeds.
Goal: beat the fastest supercomputer
Over time, researchers building quantum computers have tried to surpass contemporary supercomputers.
This milestone has been achieved on numerous occasions. As quantum computers continue to grow in terms of the number of qubits, they have begun to outnumber supercomputers in several cases.
Four years ago, the 53-qubit Sycamore was just a second ahead of today's fastest supercomputer, Frontier. Based on the researchers' estimates, it is believed that Frontier would have taken about 6.18 seconds to complete the calculation on the quantum computer.
Since then, researchers have added 17 qubits to the Sycamore. However, due to the exponential growth of its computing capacity, Frontier is expected to take 47 years to complete a computation of this magnitude.
The team used a benchmark known as random circuit sampling, which extracts data from randomly generated quantum processes. This approach helps mitigate potential noise interference during computation.
What practical applications are these calculations for?
Experts told The Telegraph that humanity is well past the point where it can claim quantum supremacy, indicating that quantum computers have significantly surpassed supercomputers.
However, the fundamental question remains: What possibilities and applications can these capabilities unlock?
We've long known that quantum computing has the potential to address challenges like climate change, discover treatments for incurable diseases, and more. But beyond academic research, focused on solving complex mathematical problems or meeting certain benchmarks, quantum computers have made limited progress in tackling real-life problems.
For now they continue to be a distant dream. Even as scientists have increased the number of qubits in their quantum systems, they still haven't found ways to deal with "quantum noise" or make computers work without requiring extremely cold temperatures.
As Microsoft suggested last month, we are still in the early days of quantum computing and may have just taken our first steps in this direction. For quantum computers to have a substantial impact on our daily lives, it is essential to develop a quantum supercomputer capable of reaching immense operating speeds on the scale of one million quantum operations per second, while maintaining low error rates (10-12).
Current quantum computers can be considered in the very early stages of this scale and there is still a considerable way to go before they can yield significant practical results. Until then, these occasional supercomputer triumphs are all we have to show.
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The article 47 years faster: the results of the exceptional Sycamore, Google's supercomputer comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/47-anni-piu-veloce-i-risultati-delleccezionale-sycamore-il-supercomputer-di-google/ on Wed, 05 Jul 2023 20:43:41 +0000.