Mozu, the world's first quantum science experimental satellite, broke the quantum teleportation record in July 2017. This success brought China to the forefront of long-range, ultra-secure quantum communication technology. Year, the world's first quantum secure communications trunk - 'Beijing-Shanghai trunk line' was officially opened.
From the United States to Europe, from state-of-the-art research institutes to giant enterprises in science and technology, research on quantum technology has been conducted in full swing. The new round of science and technology competition triggered by the quantum revolution is in full swing.
competition
Recently, Shi Youyun, chief scientist of Aliyun Quantum Laboratory and Zhiyang Yun, deputy director of Zhijiang Laboratory, expressed optimism about achieving "quantum hegemony" in 2018 and predicted quantum confrontation in several major world-class technology companies.
Called quantum supremacy, a new word invented by Caltech physicist John Preskill, the popular interpretation is that the supercomputer currently has a computing power equivalent to a quantum computer with 5 to 20 qubits, Quantum chip quantum bits to reach more than about 49, the quantum computer's ability to completely supercomputer behind.
Quantum Computing Leader - Google Announces 49 Quantum-bit Processors in April 2017. Google Chief Scientist John Martinis has said publicly that he is leading a team that is using 49-qubit simulators to take the lead in 'quantum hegemony' Overcome the classic computer can not solve the problem.
Six months later, IBM of the United States took the lead in announcing the successful development of a 20-qubit processor and the introduction of a 50-qubit prototype called Quantum Computing, which is expected to introduce the first quantum computing application in the financial field by 2021. This Undoubtedly challenge Google's 'quantum hegemony' algorithm.On the other hand, IBM has yet to release the detailed performance and test results of 'Quantum Computing Prototype'.
Subsequently, Microsoft also introduced its general quantum computing research and development program and the full stack development and simulator, although hardware devices have not yet been publicly displayed. Companies such as IonQ and Quantum Circuits and RIKEN also invest in hardware development, but they R & D results have not yet been announced.
Both startups D-Wave and Japan's NTT achieved 2048 physical qubits, but neither of them completed the full capabilities of general-purpose quantum computation and were only suitable for solving optimization problems, molecular dynamics, deep learning training and reasoning.
Last year, technology giants vied with each other to announce a breakthrough in the number of qubits, and further to see the quantum entanglement manipulation accuracy, coherence characteristics, logic gate fidelity and other indicators, which is the main difficulty .This can be foreseen in 2018 Quantum computing competition will continue to escalate.
Michael Mayberry, Intel's vice president and president of Intel Research, said in a written interview with CBNQ that quantum computing is the ultimate goal of parallel computing. At present, quantum computing is still in its infancy. The problem of solving the project scale may still need 5 ~ 7 years, while from the commercial point of view, quantum computing may require 1 million or more qubits to be of practical value.
Landing
In addition to the escalation of world-class scientific and technological enterprises, the government plays an important leading role in the frontier fundamental research and high-tech development of quantum information science. The research on quantum technology in various countries has been conducted in an all-round way.
The European Union has deployed its demonstration and decision-making quantum scheme, and the quantum declaration announced in 2015 to build a quantum technology flagship project at € 1 billion has been launched recently.
While the United States moves more rapidly in the field of quantum computing, pushing forward the construction of quantum information science disciplines in theory and developing high-performance computing systems in applied technologies, both of which have been promoted to the national strategic level with the government investment reaching 3.5 One hundred million U.S. dollars.
In 2017, 'Chinese team' moves rapidly toward the forefront in the field of quantum communication: the world's first quantum communication experimental satellite completes its goal; the world's first quantum secure communication 'Beijing-Shanghai Main Line' opens; and the world's first intercontinental quantum communication. In addition, Later than in Europe and the United States, Chinese research institutes and technology giants are currently working together to tackle the problem. The goal is to achieve 'overtaking' in the field of quantum computing.
Pan Jianwei, University of Science and Technology of China, completed 10 quantum super-quantum-entanglement entanglements in the world's first light quantum computer that surpassed the early classical computers in May last year, and it is reported that China is constructing a quantum computation of 10 billion U.S. dollars Applied Research Center. Quantum Information National Laboratory a total planned investment of about 7000000000 yuan, is expected to be completed in 2020 to complete; recent "quantum communication and quantum computer science and technology innovation 2030 major projects have also been reported to the relevant state departments, still waiting decision making.
Late last year, Japan's National Institute of Informatics, telecom giant NTT, and the University of Tokyo joined forces to develop the country's first quantum computing prototype, putting Japan among the ranks of international quantum competitions. For the first time in Japan, Japan made it clear for the first time in quantum computing The field of investment 361 million US dollars, followed by China and the United States to join the quantum technology competition.
Although 'quantum hegemony' is still a benchmark for national research institutions and business tycoons, Shi said that 'quantum hegemony' may mislead some scientists. This should not be the ultimate goal. The true test should be quantum computing Can solve practical problems.
Now the commercialization of quantum computer is indeed becoming clear.Quotator Technician Nicolas Gisin, a quantum scientist at the University of Geneva, told CBN reporter that the quantum algorithm is very hard to write and that companies need time to customize new algorithms. The door to such disruptive technology is always the highly digital and highly information-intensive market, and the first to use quantum technology is also the ones that are extremely sensitive to variables such as financial services, health care, logistics and data analytics.
Quantum hegemony has been upgraded in 2018, but the practicalization and commercialization of quantum computing have just begun, and quantum computers have a long way to go in order to truly commercialize and change people's daily lives.With the investment in R & D of quantum computing The short-term quantum advantage of any one competitor will cease to exist without a long-term sustainable R & D and commercialization strategy.