Most of the developed nations are in the race to develop a quantum computer that can outperform existing supercomputers. If fit into to adequate sizes, quantum computers are the biggest leap forward in computing for decades. Once, available at a large scale these will make our conventional supercomputers redundant. However, there are still significant hurdles in their development.
Recently, a team of Chinese scientists have built the world’s fastest supercomputer. This supercomputer is one million times more powerful than the fastest computer on earth. It is being told that China is still working on these Quantum Computers. These computers are capable of doing everything that human beings cannot even imagine right now. Scientists in China are claiming that they have developed two quantum computers with speeds that surpass the nearest competitors in the America.
China’s National Supercomputing Centre has claimed that it has built the world’s first ‘Exaflop’ quantum computer.
The device called Jiuzhang 2.0 has the capability to calculate in a single millisecond a task that the fastest conventional computer in the world would take a 30 trillion years or we can say almost impossible.
Chinese scientists kept this computer hidden from the world for many years and said that the new computers are capable of computing 100 trillion times faster than any of the world’s fastest supercomputers. This quantum computer runs on light with limited applications. But this is able to do tasks at unimaginable speeds of 100 sextillion times faster than the fastest conventional computers.
If we talk about another one with wider applications, named Zuchongzhi 2, Scientists said in a study, “We estimate that the target has been met. What our computer Zuchongzhi completed in just 1.2 hours, it would have taken at least 8 years to complete the world’s fastest computer.” Google’s Sycamore is the closest to China’s quantum supercomputer. Zuchongzhi 2 is a 66-qubit programmable quantum computer. This creation is 10 million times faster than Google’s 55-qubit Sycamore, making it the fastest on the planet.
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How do Quantum Computers work?
Quantum technology is based on the principles of quantum mechanics that were developed in the early 20th century to describe nature at the scale of atoms and elementary particles. In traditional computing, information is processed in ‘bits’ or ‘1’ and ‘0’, this system follows the classical physics whereby our computers can process ‘1’ or ‘0’ at a time. However, in quantum computing, a computer computes in ‘cubits’ (or quantum bits). They harness the properties of quantum mechanics. Under this, the processor can have both 1 and 0 states at the same time, which is called a state of quantum superposition. In simple words, a quantum computer runs millions of times faster than existing conventional computers.
A key to future problems:
Quantum computing will serve as a key to many future problems. These computers have the potential to do calculations and run simulations that are beyond our thinking. Their array of applications is limitless. They can solve complex problems like understanding gene mutations, finding the best molecules, gene editing, understanding earth topography in a much detailed manner, Deep space missions etc. In a nutshell, we can say that Quantum Computers will be the backbone of Industrial Revolution 4.0.
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