Quantum Supremacy? An introduction to Quantum Computing.

This week, a computing breakthrough occurred. Tech giant Google has claimed that one of its quantum computers has achieved "quantum supremacy" for the first time, surpassing the performance of conventional devices.

Their new Sycamore quantum processor was able to perform a specific task in 200 seconds that would take the IBM’s world-leading supercomputer over 10,000 years to complete.

Scientists have been working on quantum computers for decades because they promise much faster speeds. But how do they work?

In classical computing, each unit of information is called a "bit" and can have a value of either 1 or 0. But in a quantum system - the quantum bit, or qubit - can be both 1 and 0 at the same time.

This means that, unlike in a binary system, multiple calculations can be performed simultaneously. But it’s not a simple process. The qubits need to be synchronised using a mysterious quantum effect known as entanglement.

The complexity of the system means that scientists have struggled to build working devices with enough qubits to make them competitive with conventional types of computer.

The new Sycamore processor only contains 54 qubits, which has proved more than enough of a challenge for the team.

Their results are both interesting an informative, showing that they have low error rates and a high level of control of the device. But there’s a lot more work to do before this can be used in the real world.

IBM, which has been working on quantum computers of its own, has also said that there are further steps to be made in classical computing, and have argued that their systems, properly optimised, could come a lot closer the quantum computer’s performance.

This is an exciting time for computing development. However, no matter how rapid the progress of developing quantum computers is, there will still be a place for the classical computer. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses – so the future is a partnership between the two.