Quantum supremacy (Sycamore) and error correction (Willow)
Supremacía cuántica (Sycamore) y corrección de errores (Willow)
- Date
- 2019 · confidence high
- Place
- Google Quantum AI, Santa Barbara, California, United States
- Credited to
- Google (John Martinis, Hartmut Neven; 53-qubit Sycamore, October 2019); Willow chip with below-threshold error correction (December 2024); USTC Hefei (Jiuzhang, 2020)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A 53-qubit processor that performed in 200 seconds a sampling task estimated to take a supercomputer thousands of years, and in 2024 a chip that reduced errors as qubits were added. They demonstrated quantum advantage and the feasibility of error correction.
IBM disputed the 2019 claim, arguing that a supercomputer could do it in days; the term supremacy is controversial.
What it led to
- The quantum race between the United States and China
- The migration to post-quantum cryptography
- Fault-tolerant quantum computers as the goal of the decade
Built on
- Euclidean algorithmc. 300 BCE
- Shor's algorithm and quantum computing1994
- Superconducting qubit1999
- dilution-refrigerator cryogenics
Made possible
- Photonic quantum advantage (Jiuzhang)2020
- fault-tolerant quantum computing
- quantum simulation of materials