Chinese scientists announce 66 qubit quantum computer

A team of researchers in China has announced the development of a two-dimensional programmable supercomputing quantum processor composed of 66 functional qubits. Named Zuchongzhi, the quantum processor uses 56 out of its 66 qubits to complete a sampling task in about 1.2 hours, whereas the most powerful supercomputer would take at least 8 years for the same task. The researchers claim that their processor outperforms Google’s Sycamore processor, which involves 53 qubits. The work is also presented as establishing ‘an unambiguous quantum computational advantage that is infeasible for classical computation in a reasonable amount of time’. The team behind Zuchongzhi involves researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China, the Shanghai Research Center for Quantum Sciences, the Henan Key Laboratory of Quantum Information and Cryptography, QuantumCTek Co,. and the Chinese Academic of Sciences.