"China is making new strides in its bid to join the U.S. as a leader in quantum computing, a promising but elusive technology that could one day supercharge scientific research and transform data-intensive industries ranging from finance and pharmaceuticals to logistics and green energy.
Baidu Inc., a Chinese internet pioneer known for its Google-like search engine, said in late August that it had built its own version of a quantum computer, an experimental device that exploits the quirks of quantum physics to perform calculations at speeds far beyond those of conventional electronic computers.
The advance follows similar ones made in recent years by International Business Machines Corp., Alphabet Inc.'s Google and other companies in the U.S., which is widely viewed as the world leader in quantum computing research.
Baidu said its new computer -- an assemblage of metal plates and wires that looks a bit like an oversize chandelier -- is accessible free of charge via a website and mobile app to researchers, engineers and even schoolchildren. U.S. companies, including IBM and Google, also offer websites to access their quantum computers.
"It will act as a base for people to learn more about the technology," Yvonne Gao, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies, says of Qian Shi, the name of the new computer, meaning "heaven is the origin of everything" in Mandarin Chinese. "It's definitely useful for boosting innovation in this direction."
Whether quantum-computing devices will eventually move from the lab to widespread commercial use remains a debate in the science community. But mathematical proofs indicate that fully realized quantum computers would be able to solve in seconds certain problems that would take even the fastest supercomputers thousands or millions of years.
Quantum computers derive their extraordinary speed from their use of so-called quantum bits, or qubits, instead of the digital zeros and ones used to represent data in conventional computers.
Bits, as those zeros and ones are known, can only have a single value. But qubits -- which are encoded into subatomic and atomic particles including electrons, photons and ions -- can exist as a zero and a one at the same time. This phenomenon, known as superposition, makes qubits superbly efficient at handling certain calculations, such as those required to simulate the physical world or optimize business processes.
Qubits are also special for their ability to enter quantum entanglement, meaning two particles, at a distance, will mirror each other's behaviors as though they are linked. Such a feature can be exploited to coordinate computation.
On Wednesday three physicists who confirmed the existence of this phenomenon received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Figuring out how to control these properties has proven to be a great challenge. Programming qubits into the right states requires a setup that allows interacting with them. But keeping them in those states long enough to perform computations requires just the opposite: completely isolating them from other particles that could make the qubits lose their encoded information.
"That's the great engineering paradox," says Steven Girvin, a professor of physics at Yale University.
If researchers succeed, quantum computers might make it possible for battery makers to predict complex chemical reactions to design higher-performing devices. Similarly, the computers might speed the development of new medicines by helping drugmakers simulate protein folding, the intricate process by which these large biological molecules assume their shape.
Quantum computers might also be capable of defeating the standard form of encryption used to secure communications worldwide -- a matter of great concern to financial institutions as well as governments anxious to keep intelligence and military secrets.
Quantum physicists say it's this worrisome possibility -- and the fear of being left behind -- that has fueled massive government interest and investment into the technology globally.
The U.S., Germany, France and India are among the countries that have each committed upward of $1 billion in state funding to be spent on quantum tech research over the next few years. Beijing doesn't release numbers on its planned investments, but Chinese media reports and U.S. policy research groups, including Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank Rand Corp. and McKinsey, have placed its commitment over a similar period to between $1 billion and more than $15 billion.
Compared with the U.S., China was a latecomer to quantum computing. It sought first to dominate a related field known as quantum communication, which aims to develop a method of encryption that is nearly impossible to hack.
China tech-policy experts say that initial focus likely came in response to the revelations in 2013 by former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden that Washington had hacked deep into the backbone of China's internet.
Since leaping ahead in its quest to build a hack-proof internet, Beijing's shift of attention to quantum computing has been evident in the growing number of research projects and breakthroughs from Chinese scientists. The work has fed into a budding number of commercial efforts. Baidu relied on innovations from Chinese universities to build its computer, says Runyao Duan, director of Baidu's institute for quantum computing." [1]
1. China Leaps Into Quantum Computing Race |
