Engineering 6 (2020) 381–383

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Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eng

News & Highlights

Google Takes a Big Step toward Quantum Computing

Google scientists set the computing world abuzz in October either one or zero. A quantum computer, on the other hand, uses
2019 by announcing its quantum computer had solved a problem qubits, which can be one and zero at the same time, at least until
in just 200 s that a classical computer would take years—10 000 they are measured, at which time their states become known.
by Google’s estimation—to solve [1]. The achievement, since Therefore, the total number of states doubles with each added
disputed by scientists at the International Business Machines qubit. One qubit is two possible states, two is four possible states,
Corporation (IBM) and downplayed by many experts in the field three is eight, and so forth. By the time you get to 100 qubits
as too esoteric, signaled proof to Google investigators that quan- (hypothetical ones that behave perfectly), every atom on planet
tum computers can achieve ‘‘quantum supremacy” and over- Earth would be needed to store the bits describing the state of a
whelmingly outperform even the world’s most powerful classical quantum computer [3].
computers on certain tasks. In the future, more robust, powerful Google built its quantum computer by stringing together qubits
versions of quantum computers like Google’s, which exploit the made of loops of superconducting metal shielded from the noisy
properties of matter at subatomic scales to significantly improve non-quantum world in a chamber kept at temperatures just above
processing power, could revolutionize computing, encrypting data, absolute zero (Fig. 1). Google’s recent breakthrough experiment
and investigating some of the most mysterious aspects of nature.
‘‘This is certainly an important result, showing at last that a
quantum computer can do a specific task in an absolute shorter
time than a classical computer,” said Daniel Lidar, professor of
engineering at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los
Angeles, director of the USC Center for Quantum Information
Science and Technology, and co-director of the USC-Lockheed Mar-
tin Quantum Computing Center. ‘‘While the problem Google solved
was very specific and not considered particularly useful, I wouldn’t
be surprised to see a practically useful quantum computer appear
in the next ten years. Quantum simulation, whereby a quantum
computer simulates another quantum system or models thereof,
appears particularly close and promising.”
While ten years may seem a long way off, the origins of quan-
tum computing date back to 1981, the same year IBM released
its first personal computer. In a lecture that year, physicist Richard
Feynman made the case that quantum-mechanical phenomena,
such as chemical reactions and the flow of electrons through semi-
conductors, are best simulated with machines based on quantum-
mechanical rules [2]. Such computers would harness entangle-
ment, a phenomenon unique to quantum systems whereby two
(or more) particles seem to operate in a coordinated manner, even
when separated by vast distances. These mysterious links make
quantum systems challenging to simulate on classical computers.
The expectation is that quantum computers will prove more ide-
ally suited to tackle complex problems like designing better phar-
maceuticals and more efficient solar cells.
Fig. 1. Artist’s rendition of Google’s Sycamore processor embedded in a cryostat
Also, compared to ordinary computers, quantum computers device that cools the processor’s qubits to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero.
have the potential to do calculations much, much faster. Standard The low temperature helps prevent noise from disrupting the qubits. Credit: Forest
computers store data and perform computations using bits that are Stearns, Google AI Quantum Artist in Residence (CC BY-ND 4.0).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2020.02.003
2095-8099/Ó 2020 THE AUTHOR. Published by Elsevier LTD on behalf of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press Limited Company.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
382 C. Palmer / Engineering 6 (2020) 381–383

tested whether its quantum computing device, a 54-qubit array is to add error-correction routines to the system. However, at least
named Sycamore (Fig. 2), could correctly verify the results from five error-correcting qubits are required for every qubit involved in
the quantum version of a random number generator. Sycamore computation [8]. The additional qubits would run up both cost and
sampled the random quantum circuit one million times in just complexity. Google’s biggest quantum computer has 72 qubits, but
200 s. When the team simulated the same quantum circuit on between the problems with noise, other sources of inefficiency,
classical computers, it found that even the most powerful in the and the challenge of combining qubits in a way that they can solve
world, IBM’s Summit supercomputer, would require approxi- a wide variety of problems, it has been estimated that around one
mately 10 000 years to perform the same task [1]. ‘‘Aside from million qubits will be needed for a general-purpose quantum com-
the blazing speed, another clear win for Google comes in terms puter [9].
of energy consumption,” said Lidar, noting that Sycamore used just To get around the finicky nature of qubits, some research
a few kilowatts to perform its calculation, while megawatts are groups are taking a different approach to the hardware. Microsoft
required to run Summit. is attempting to use an obscure mathematical theory called
Some experts in the field have likened Google’s achievement to topology to create a novel type of qubit that is much more robust
the Wright brothers’ first plane flight in 1903—conceptual proof of than those used in current systems [10]. Startup firm IonQ (College
an idea whose practical application is still years away. Other Park, MD, USA) is experimenting with using lasers to read out the
researchers dismissed the milestone because the calculation was quantum state of ytterbium ions trapped in magnetic fields [7].
so specific it is unlikely to ever be applied to more general comput- Another startup, PsiQuantum (Palo Alto, CA, USA), is attempting
ing applications. In addition, rival scientists at IBM published a to make qubits from photons of light guided through tracks laid
blog post arguing that the quantum computation could theoreti- out in silicon chips [7]. One benefit of this method is that the qubits
cally be run on its Summit supercomputer in less than two and a could be generated in existing semiconductor manufacturing
half days [4]. plants. The firm thinks it can build a million-qubit computer in
Though quantum computing is still in its infancy, money has about eight years [7].
been pouring into the field. Because quantum computing is Given the expected fragility of individual qubits, Sycamore
expected to be particularly adept at factoring large numbers—a appears to be a fairly robust system, said Lidar. ‘‘More so than solv-
critical aspect of many modern data encryption schemes—govern- ing the random number problem, I was impressed with the extre-
ments around the world consider it a national security priority. mely high level of calibration and control in Sycamore’s qubits, and
China ($400 million USD) [5], the United States ($1.2 billion the relatively low level of decoherence and noise,” he said.
USD) [5], and the European Union ($1.1 billion USD) [6] are all In general, though, the remaining technical hurdles that will
spending big. In addition, several computing stalwarts are doing need to be overcome concern many experts. In a December 2018
their own quantum research, including Alibaba, Baidu, Google, report, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and
Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, IBM, and Tencent [7]. Startups are also Medicine warned that if a practical use for quantum computers
looking to make a foothold in the industry, with private investors fails to emerge soon, investment could dry up [11]. ‘‘Nobody wants
pouring $450 million USD into dozens of companies in 2017 and to miss the boat, but I think at some point there will be very hard
2018 [7]. re-examination of where the technology stands and what the
But before quantum computing power can be harnessed to challenges are,” said Subhash Kak, a professor of engineering at
solve practical problems, there is a major obstacle to overcome: Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK, USA, who has pub-
Qubits are extremely error prone. Noise in the environment, lished extensively on quantum mechanics and cryptography. Kak
including mechanical vibrations, temperature variations, or stray thinks no number of error-correcting qubits can solve the noise-
electromagnetic fields, weakens the coordination between qubits. related problems. ‘‘Personally, I believe that they will never be
This could degrade the machines’ reliability. One potential solution built for commercial scale,” he said. ‘‘Therefore, all that is happen-
ing is a massive investment in basic science, which is not
necessarily a bad thing.”
Lidar, however, is more optimistic. ‘‘Since the mid-nineties,
quantum computing has transitioned from essentially a theoretical
activity to a rapidly growing hardware-based industry with tens of
thousands of active researchers around the world supported by
substantial funding,” he said. ‘‘For its part, Google has demon-
strated a path to a system that is scalable to perhaps a couple hun-
dred qubits without too much more additional engineering
innovation. And, at that point, simulating models of quantum sys-
tems becomes really interesting.”

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