Google Quantum Chip Achieves Breakthrough in Computing Speed: 13,000 Times Faster Than Supercomputers
Google recently published a paper in Nature detailing its quantum computing team's latest breakthrough: using a 65-qubit superconducting processor named Willow, the team achieved speeds approximately 13,000 times faster than the world's fastest supercomputer, Frontier, when performing complex physics simulations through a novel algorithm called “Quantum Echoes.” This breakthrough marks the world's first verifiable quantum advantage, signifying that quantum computers have empirically surpassed classical computers for the first time, with results verifiable by other quantum devices or physical experiments.
The Quantum Echoes algorithm employs an innovative forward-backward time evolution technique to measure the second-order temporal non-sequential correlation function (OTOC(2)) in complex quantum systems. This reveals the propagation and interference mechanisms of quantum information in chaotic states—a task nearly impossible for classical computers. The algorithm completed a task that would take a traditional supercomputer 3.2 years in just about 2 hours, dramatically boosting computational efficiency.
Hartmut Neven, Google's Senior Vice President of Engineering, emphasized that this achievement not only delivers astonishing speed gains but also meets scientific verifiability requirements, aligning with Richard Feynman's vision of using quantum computers to simulate nature. The breakthrough hinges on the chip's hardware capability for rapid reverse quantum state evolution.
Google's Chief Quantum Hardware Scientist Michel Devoret, alongside two Nobel laureates in physics, laid the theoretical and experimental foundations for this technology. The team also demonstrated that Quantum Echoes can be applied to enhance nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, showcasing broad potential in critical fields such as drug discovery and new material development.
Google anticipates that within the next five years, quantum computing will enter multiple practical application domains, ushering in a new era for science and technology.