China speeding along in quantum computing race

China speeding along in quantum computing race

China is now the 3rd country worldwide to possess built and delivered quantum computers right after Canada and the United states of america first shipped theirs in 2011 and 2019, respectively.

Source Quantum Computing Technologies Co, established within Hefei in 2017, says it has shipped a 24-qubit portion computer – known as Benyuan Wuyuan – that reportedly utilizes self-developed superconducting chip technology.

The organization says it will launch a faster mess computer called Wukong, the name of the Monkey Ruler in Chinese mythology, later this year.

The announcement has prompted THIS columnists and observers to speculate on China’s chances of catching plan the US in the race to lead the particular quantum computing trend.

The consensus seems to be that will China is four to five yrs behind the US in the quantum computer sector – but could in the decades forward take the lead since the high-tech competition evolves.

For the source of Origin, display back to September 2017, when Guo Guoping, deputy director of the Key Laboratory of Quantum Information,   Chinese Academy associated with Sciences  (CAS), led a team associated with scientists in creating Origin Quantum in Hefei. In Mandarin Chinese, Benyuan means Origin.

In the series A round of fundraising in January 2021, the organization received over one hundred million yuan (US$15. 5 million) from the group of investors led by the China Web Investment Fund. In the series B round last July, this raised 1 billion dollars yuan from new investors led by Shenzhen Capital Group’s Hotland Investment Resource Management.

In 2011, Canadian firm D-Wave Systems released the particular world’s first commercial quantum computer – called D-Wave One . Equipped with a 128-qubit chipset, the computer was priced at US$10 mil. In 2019, IBM unveiled its Q System One particular, a 20-qubit device.  

Second in the race was IBM’s Queen System One. Photo: IBM

In its Wuyuan collection, Origin Quantum launched its 6-qubit portion chip, namely KF-C6-130, in 2020 along with a 24-qubit quantum chip, KF-C24-100, in 2021. Last year, it released its first collaborative computing program solution of a mess computer, using its personal operating system called Benyuan Sinan, or Origins Pilot.

The organization said this week it delivered a 24-qubit quantum computer but it did not disclose additional information about its components and technologies. It also did not identify the client or reveal the particular selling price of this device.

In connection with the particular announcement, Guo Guoping looked into the future plus predicted that over the following three to five years quantum computing will be put to practical use in people’s lives and manufacturing.

This individual said a complicated computation that would take a month for 10 supercomputers to complete could be done in three to seven days with assistance from a quantum computer.

Guo originally analyzed foreign languages on the Hefei-based University associated with Science and Technology of China but then later changed their major to physics. He was mentored by CAS academician  Guo Guangcan plus received his PhD at the same university.

Speaking of speed, he spoke associated with witnessing rapid improvement in the field. He remembered that when he had been conducting experiments within a laboratory 20 years ago the lab has been ill-equipped to the point associated with lacking even correct chairs and desks. With the investment money now available to the portion computing sector there is no such issue today, he said.

In 2010, Guo started contributing to the National Basic Research Program, or the so-called 973 Program.  

Guo said their original career program didn’t foresee creating Origin Quantum as well as trying to make money. Yet once he started the company it became a passion for him: He once sold his own house to ensure the company survived, he or she said.

Mess computing whiz Guo Guoping. Photo: Tiongkok Speech Valley and Quantum Center, Hefei

Zhang Hui, general supervisor of  Origin Mess, said that will although the company provides delivered a quantum computer for the first time, it provides to achieve many more technical breakthroughs to increase the computing speed.

Zhang said the quantum computer may have commercial value only when its speed reaches 50 to a hundred qubit. Since a year ago, he said, the company has started to discover the applications associated with quantum computing in the finance, biomedical and artificial intelligence industries.
 
Some scientists have got pointed out that a 30-qubit quantum computer has processing power equivalent to that of a supercomputer with a speed of 1 teraflop (a trillion  floating point operations per second) while a 50-qubit quantum pc is faster than the usual supercomputer when carrying out certain tasks.

One well-read Chinese IT author has laid out the three-stage process to commercialize quantum computer systems.

The first stage, he says, is to construct prototypes of quantum computers. The second stage, which he predicts will happen in the next decade, will be to make  specific chips for different utilizes. He says more apps will be launched within the last stage, which will last for several more years.

The article writer says it is true that China’s development in quantum computing lags behind those of the US but this individual asserts that the ALL OF US cannot stop China from developing.

In recent years, Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and Huawei have been investing in quantum computing while major US players in the sector include Google, Microsoft and Intel.

In-may 2021, an University of Science and Technology of China research team light emitting diode by scientist Pan Jianwei launched Zuchongzhi 2, a superconducting quantum computer that needs to work at a temperature close to absolute zero.

But IBM’s Eagle surpassed Zuchongzhi 2 to become the world’s fastest superconducting quantum machine.

Read: US mulling bans to stunt China’s quantum computing

Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at  @jeffpao3