Google says it just made a huge step forward in quantum computing

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Google's new Willow chip promises big advances

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  • Google unveils Willow quantum chip, promises major leaps forward
  • Willow can outperform previous generations of chips across a range of benchmarks
  • The chip has the potential for exponential error reduction - a key milestone

Google has unveiled a new quantum chip capable of exponential error reduction - a huge milestone in the journey towards quantum advantage.

The release of Willow, marks the second milestone in Google’s journey towards creating a large error-corrected quantum computer.

When tested using the random circuit sampling benchmark, Willow was able to complete the benchmark in five minutes - just slightly faster than the world's current fastest supercomputer, which would take 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.

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The chip was made at Google’s purpose-built Santa Barbara lab, with Willow housing 105 qubits. A qubit is quantum’s equivalent of a ‘bit’ used in classical computing, with the difference being that a qubit can exist as both a binary one and zero at the same time thanks to a qubit's ability to exist in a state known as superposition.

Willow’s qubits are also capable of retaining their state of excitation, their ‘one’ state in binary terms, for almost 100 microseconds - five times longer than previous generations of chips produced by Google.

While the benchmarks performed by Willow are impressive, they are just a step in the journey towards creating a viable quantum computer that provides an actual advantage over a classic computer. Current quantum computers may be faster at solving certain problems, but classic computing is better optimized for a wider range of tasks that are not only scientifically viable, but also commercially.

In a blog postannouncing the launch, Hartmut Neven, Founder and Lead, Google Quantum AI, states, “On the one hand, we’ve run the RCS benchmark, which measures performance against classical computers but has no known real-world applications. On the other hand, we’ve done scientifically interesting simulations of quantum systems, which have led to new scientific discoveries but are still within the reach of classical computers.”

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Senior Writer, Security

Benedict is a Senior Security Writer at TechRadar Pro, where he has specialized in covering the intersection of geopolitics, cyber-warfare, and business security.

Benedict provides detailed analysis on state-sponsored threat actors, APT groups, and the protection of critical national infrastructure, with his reporting bridging the gap between technical threat intelligence and B2B security strategy.

Benedict holds an MA (Distinction) in Security, Intelligence, and Diplomacy from the University of Buckingham Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS), with his specialization providing him with a robust academic framework for deconstructing complex international conflicts and intelligence operations, and the ability to translate intricate security data into actionable insights.