STORY: Google says it has cracked a key challenge in quantum computing, with a new chip capable of almost unfathomable speeds.
The tech giant says it can perform one standard test in under five minutes, one that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years.
That’s vastly longer than the universe has existed.
Google says the results lend credence to theories that quantum computing taps into a multiverse of parallel universes.
Dubbed “Willow”, the new chip has 105 so-called “qubits” – the building blocks of quantum machines.
They are super fast but also very error prone, and can be upset by something as tiny as a passing subatomic particle.
Now Google says it’s found a way to make them more reliable, and says it can also correct errors in real time.
That’s a big step towards building a practical quantum computer.
Google hopes such devices could one day deliver huge advances in fields like AI and medicine.
In a blog post Monday, it said that – even under ideal conditions – it would take a regular computer a billion years to get the same results as Willow.
The processors are being crafted at a new purpose-built facility in Santa Barbara, California.
Rival firms have focused on building chips with more qubits, but Google says improving reliability is the key to delivering a workable system.
