Story: Google says it has solved a key challenge in quantum computing with new chips that are almost unimaginably fast.
The tech giant says it can complete a standard test in five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers a billion years to complete.
That’s much longer than the universe has existed.
Google said the results confirmed the theory that quantum computing exploits a multiverse of parallel universes.
The new chip, called “Willow,” has 105 so-called “qubits” – the building blocks of quantum machines.
They’re super fast, but also prone to error and can be disrupted by something as tiny as passing subatomic particles.
Now Google says it has found a way to make them more reliable, and says it can also correct errors on the fly.
This is a big step towards building practical quantum computers.
Google hopes such devices will one day lead to huge advances in fields such as artificial intelligence and medicine.
Even under ideal conditions, it would take an average computer a billion years to achieve the same results as Willow, it said in a blog post on Monday.
The processors are manufactured in a new purpose-built factory in Santa Barbara, California.
Rival companies have focused on building chips with more qubits, but Google says improving reliability is key to delivering a viable system.
