Google Claims Breakthrough in Quantum Computing -- Update
October 23 2019 - 7:28PM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Castellanos
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Researchers at Alphabet Inc.'s Google
say their latest quantum-computing experiment helps usher in a new
era of next-generation computers. The business impact, however, is
small.
The company said Wednesday that its quantum computer generated
about 1 million random strings of numbers in roughly three minutes,
a task that would have taken the world's fastest conventional
supercomputer 10,000 years. Scientists at International Business
Machines Corp., which is working to commercialize its own quantum
computer, disagreed, saying the task could be handled by a
traditional computer in 2 1/2 days.
By harnessing the properties of quantum physics, quantum
computers have the potential to sort through a vast number of
possibilities in nearly real time and come up with a probable
solution. While traditional computers store information as either
zeros or ones, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which
represent and store information as both zeros and ones
simultaneously.
The calculation by Google's 54-qubit machine, called Sycamore,
represents a benchmark by which to measure future quantum-computing
experiments, the company's researchers said. The fact the machine
could do the calculation with a low error rate means it should be
possible to handle tougher calculations by adding more qubits,
while still keeping errors low, they added.
"It's really good news for the field that if we make more
complicated systems, everything should work," said John Martinis,
Google's chief scientist of quantum hardware. He and several
researchers spoke to about a dozen journalists about the
significance of their experiment at the company's lab 300 miles
south of its Mountain View, Calif. headquarters.
The lab comprises about 35 researchers and hundreds of millions
of dollars worth of quantum-computing equipment. The staff is
expected to move into a bigger lab in Santa Barbara in about six
months, where more engineers and physicists will be added to the
team, Mr. Martinis said.
A so-called random number sampling is useful for generating
passwords in near-real-time because randomness is a key component
of modern security. But a commercial-grade quantum computer that
could, for example, discover new drugs for diseases or new
environmentally-friendly materials, could have as many as 1 million
qubits.
Google is years away from building such a machine because it
will have to contend with several hardware challenges related to
things like wiring and making components much smaller.
Its research was met with mixed reaction from industry experts
and competitors.
Google's experiment "is proof we are making forward
progress...but from the end-user standpoint it's a nonevent," said
Matthew Brisse, an analyst at technology research and advisory firm
Gartner Inc. who specializes in data-center and cloud
infrastructure.
Competitors ranging from Microsoft Corp. to
venture-capital-backed startups such as IonQ Inc. are working to
commercialize quantum computing using other scientific techniques
that involve light and small particles. It is yet to be determined
whether Google's approach is the right one, some experts say.
"There are so many more technological challenges on the road
ahead that it's quite possible that other platforms for doing
quantum computation may in the long term overtake it," said Paul
Warburton, a professor of nanoelectronics at University College
London.
The Trump administration has made quantum computing a priority
with the authorization of $1.2 billion over five years for
quantum-related activities across the federal government.
The global enterprise quantum-computing market is expected to
reach $5.85 billion by 2025, up from $650 million in 2017,
according to Allied Market Research.
By 2023, 20% of organizations, including businesses and
governments, are expected to budget for quantum-computing projects,
up from less than 1% in 2018, according to Gartner.
Hartmut Neven, an engineering director at Google and founder and
manager of the Quantum Artificial Intelligence lab -- a joint
initiative of the company, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration and the Universities Space Research Association --
compared the experiment to the beginning of a new computing
era.
"Sputnik didn't do much either. It circled around the Earth and
beeped," Mr. Neven said. "That's all it did, and that was the start
of the Space Age."
--Steven Rosenbush contributed to this article.
Write to Sara Castellanos at sara.castellanos@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 23, 2019 19:13 ET (23:13 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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