China plans to create a 20-qubit quantum system this year

More and more companies are now entering the race to create quantum computers. Recently we reported that Google has started creating a 50-qubit quantum computer. And now the news from China came: a group of researchers from the Chinese University of Science and Technology and the University of Zhejiang on the basis of the existing 10-qubit quantum system plans to increase the number of qubits in it by half in 2017.

The Chinese quantum system is based on the use of single photons, strongly cooled atoms, and superconducting electronic circuits. Despite a bold statement about the expansion of up to 20 qubits, scientists make predictions that next year the system will be able to total 30 qubits already. In 2016, researchers managed to create a source of single photons, based on semiconductor quantum dots. Now this source supplies photons electrically programmable elements of photonic circuits, of which the quantum computer consists.

At the moment, a 10-qubit quantum computing system shows a performance level of 24,000 times the speed of a quantum system with five photon qubits. This is in view of the fact that the 5-qubit system showed an extremely high level of performance. As the researchers themselves assure,

"Our architecture of the quantum computing system allows expansion to any number of photons used in it. At the same time, as the number of photons increases, the system's performance will increase exponentially. The 30-qubit quantum system planned for next year will be able to compete with the most powerful "ordinary" computers. "

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/technology/kitaj-planiruet-sozdat-20-kubitnuyu-kvantovuyu-sistemu-uzhe-v-etom-godu.html.