Beyond traditional supercomputing! China's superconducting quantum computer "Zu Chongzhi No. 3" makes a stunning debut

Today (December 17), reporters learned from the University of Science and Technology of China that the "Zu Chongzhi No. 3" quantum computer developed by Chinese scientists, featuring 105 quantum bits, was published online on arXiv on December 17, 2024. This surpasses Google's latest progress with the 72-qubit "Sycamore" processor published in Nature in October 2024 by six orders of magnitude, marking the strongest superiority in superconducting quantum computing to date.

"Quantum computing superiority" refers to the ability of quantum computers to outperform classical computers in solving specific problems, thereby addressing computational tasks that even supercomputers cannot solve in a short time. Quantum superiority is a prerequisite for the practical application value of quantum computing and a direct reflection of a country's research strength in quantum computing.

In 2019, Google announced that its 53-qubit "Sycamore" quantum processor completed a random circuit sampling task in 200 seconds, claiming to have achieved quantum computing superiority. However, this achievement faced a strong challenge from Chinese scientists in 2023. Chinese researchers developed more advanced classical algorithms, completing the same task in about 17 seconds using A100 GPUs, overturning Google's claims about quantum advantage at that time.

In 2020, the University of Science and Technology of China constructed the "Jiuzhang" photonic quantum computing prototype, which strictly proved quantum computing superiority for the first time using photon pathways. Subsequently, in 2021, the first strictly proven quantum computing superiority in superconducting systems was achieved on the "Zu Chongzhi No. 2" processor. Thus, China has become the only country in the world to reach the "quantum computing superiority" milestone in two different physical systems.

After reaching the "quantum computing superiority" milestone, one of the current key tasks in quantum computing research is to break through quantum error correction technology, laying the foundation for the large-scale integration and manipulation of quantum bits, and ultimately constructing fault-tolerant universal quantum computers. Surface codes are the most mature solution for achieving large-scale expansion of quantum error correction.

In 2022, Chinese scientists first achieved surface code quantum error correction with a code distance of 3 on the "Zu Chongzhi No. 2" superconducting quantum processor, verifying the feasibility of the surface code scheme for the first time. In 2023, Google implemented surface code logical qubits with code distances of 3 and 5, demonstrating for the first time that the error rate decreases as the code distance increases. In the latest work in December 2024, Google utilized the "Willow" processor to achieve surface code logical qubits with code distances of 3, 5, and 7, significantly reducing the error rate of logical qubits and fundamentally verifying the scalability of the surface code scheme, laying an important technical foundation for the integration and manipulation of large-scale quantum bit systems The superconducting quantum team at the University of Science and Technology of China is working on the "Zuchongzhi No. 3" processor, planning to achieve surface code logical qubits with a code distance of 7 within a few months, and further expand the code distance to 9 and 11, paving the way for the integration and manipulation of large-scale qubits. The "Zuchongzhi No. 3" superconducting quantum computer has further optimized its design and process based on previous generations, achieving comprehensive improvements in both the number of qubits and performance, with performance indicators comparable to the "Willow" processor.

Quantum computing has become one of the focal points of comprehensive national power competition among major countries globally. In recent years, major technological countries have continuously strengthened their planning and layout in the field of quantum computing, with over 30 countries already engaged in quantum information planning focused on quantum computing.

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