Google said on Wednesday it had achieved a breakthrough in computer research, by solving a complex problem in minutes with a so-called quantum computer that would take today's most powerful supercomputer thousands of years to crack. Official confirmation of the breakthrough in quantum computing came in a paper published in science journal Nature, after weeks of controversy following the leak of a draft, over whether Google's claim of "quantum supremacy" was valid. Computer scientists have for decades sought to harness the behaviour of sub-atomic particles that can simultaneously exist in different states - in contrast to the "real" world that people perceive around them. REUTERS/Text by Douglas Busvine
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So, whereas traditional computing relies on bits, or ones and zeros, quantum computing uses quantum bits, or qubits, that can be both one and zero at the same time. This property, called superposition, multiplies exponentially as qubits become entangled with each other. The more qubits that can be strung together, the vastly more powerful a quantum computer becomes. But there's a catch: Quantum researchers need to cool the qubits to close to absolute zero to limit vibration - or "noise" - that causes errors to creep into their calculations. It's in this extremely challenging task that the research team at Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, has made significant progress. CEO Sundar Pichai compared the achievement to building the first rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere and touch the edge of space, an advance that brought interplanetary travel into the realm of the possible.
RANDOM TASK
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WHAT MAKES QUANTUM COMPUTERS SO POWERFUL?
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WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG TO GET HERE?
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DOES THIS MEAN THAT OLD COMPUTERS ARE FINISHED?
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SO WHAT'S NEXT?
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IS GOOGLE IN THE LEAD?
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