Google has announced a significant development in quantum computing as it unveiled its next-generation chip called Willow.
Google has developed the new chip Willow at its quantum lab in Santa Barbara, California that will solve a complex mathematical problem in just five minutes — a task that would take classical computers longer than the history of the universe.
In a blogpost, the technology company wrote: “Willow performed a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion (that is, 1025) years — a number that vastly exceeds the age of the Universe.”
Like Microsoft, the tech company’s objective is to revolutionise computing by achieving speeds far beyond current systems. While the problem solved by Google’s chip has no immediate commercial application, the firm envisions quantum computers tackling challenges in battery technology, medicine and artificial intelligence, which are beyond the scope of today’s machines.
A quantum chip is a special kind of computer chip that is designed to use the principles of quantum mechanics, the science of very tiny particles like atoms.
