Google announces the creation of a laboratory dedicated to research on the design of quantum chips reliable enough to be able to create a computer with 1,000,000 qubits by 2029. Today, quantum computers reach a maximum of 100 qubits.
Fight against hunger in the world, anticipate climate change, accelerate medical research, this is the ambition of Google for the end of the decade. The Internet giant intends to achieve this using artificial intelligence and especially the colossal computing power of quantum computers, and this, from 2029. For that, during its annual conference Google I / O, the firm has just unveiled a new campus dedicated to Quantum Artificial Intelligence. Located in Santa Barbara, its research laboratory will aim to develop quantum processors sufficiently reliable to design a computer giant quantum.
This announcement comes a year and a half after the successful completion of calculations using a quantum computer at the firm. It was able to perform in 200 seconds a calculation that would have taken 10,000 years or more on a traditional supercomputer, according to Google. A statement that made IBM skeptical in the moment. The company considers that, with the supercomputers current and adapted algorithms, it would have taken only 2.5 days to complete this calculation. Either way, quantum computing would make it possible to process phenomenal amounts of data in a short time.
What is a quantum computer? How does it work ? What are the differences with the way a conventional computer works? Why is the quantum computer very efficient in solving certain mathematical calculations which become impossible to solve with classical computers beyond a certain volume of data? Answers with a video animation co-produced with The Wizarding Spirit. © CEA Research
Billions of dollars for quantum
Unlike ordinary bits, which enclose data in the form of 1s or 0s, in computer science quantum, we speak in ” qubits “. Qubits can exist as 1s and 0s at the same time. Thus, two qubits can be in four possible states and three can represent 8. With this exponential process, the amount of information processed is colossal.
Today the quantum computers have less than 100 qubits. Google, meanwhile, intends to build one with 1,000,000 qubits. This is no small task, since it is first necessary to reduce the error rate of the qubits to achieve this. On this point, Google is optimistic about its chances of achieving this, according to a laboratory official interviewed by The Wall Street Journal. He could use that computing power to lease it as a service. Cloud. To achieve its ends, Google plans to invest billions of dollars.
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