Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Google Bristlecone would be compelling

Google just announced a quantum supremacy chip:
This device uses the same scheme for coupling, control, and readout, but is scaled to a square array of 72 qubits. We chose a device of this size to be able to demonstrate quantum supremacy in the future, investigate first and second order error-correction using the surface code, and to facilitate quantum algorithm development on actual hardware. ...

This device uses the same scheme for coupling, control, and readout, but is scaled to a square array of 72 qubits. We chose a device of this size to be able to demonstrate quantum supremacy in the future, investigate first and second order error-correction using the surface code, and to facilitate quantum algorithm development on actual hardware. ...

We believe Bristlecone would then be a compelling proof-of-principle for building larger scale quantum computers. ...

We are cautiously optimistic that quantum supremacy can be achieved with Bristlecone, and feel that learning to build and operate devices at this level of performance is an exciting challenge! We look forward to sharing the results and allowing collaborators to run experiments in the future.
In other words, they are not quite there yet, but any day now they will be announcing a Nobel-prize-worthy computer.

I expect to be reading announcements like this for the next five years. It is like reading that high-energy particle physicists are close to discovering supersymmetry. It is all a pipe dream.

1 comment:

  1. At least they are at a point where they can test it, which is better than we were 3 years ago. Of course, when it fails, will they say anything?

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