Google’s Quantum Chip Willow: A Major Leap in Quantum Error Correction
Google has recently taken the wraps off its newest quantum computing chip, Willow. This marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of practical quantum computing. The 105-qubit processor has demonstrated two groundbreaking achievements that have been a challenge for researchers for decades.
Firstly, Willow has successfully managed to reduce error rates exponentially as the number of qubits increased. This achievement is known as “below threshold” quantum error correction – a theoretical goal first proposed in the 1990s.
Secondly, the chip completed a computational task in under five minutes. This task would take today’s fastest supercomputers an estimated 10 septillion years to finish.
Hartmut Neven, the founder of Google Quantum AI, described this achievement as cracking “a key challenge in quantum error correction that the field has pursued for almost 30 years.” While this breakthrough is significant for the quantum computing field, practical applications remain years away. Google estimates that commercial quantum computers won’t be available until the end of this decade.
Source: https://blog.google/technology/research/google-willow-quantum-chip/