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Chinese scientists have built Zuchongzhi-3, a quantum computer with 105 qubits. This prototype also has 182 couplers, which connect qubits to share data. Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China led the project.
They worked with experts from Shanghai, Henan, Jinan, Xidian University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zuchongzhi-3 runs a task called random quantum circuit sampling incredibly fast. It beats the world’s top supercomputer by 1015 times and Google’s latest result by a million times. The journal Physical Review Letters published this as its cover story.
Quantum supremacy means a quantum computer can do things regular computers can’t. In 2019, Google’s Sycamore, with 53 qubits, finished a task in 200 seconds. A regular supercomputer would take 10,000 years. But in 2023, Chinese researchers used smarter regular computer methods. They cut that time to 14 seconds with many GPUs. A supercomputer called Frontier did it in 1.6 seconds. This ended Google’s supremacy claim. Then, Chinese researchers achieved supremacy with Jiuzhang in 2020 using light. In 2021, Zuchongzhi-2, with 66 qubits, did it too. In 2023, Jiuzhang-3, with 255 light qubits, beat supercomputers by 1016 times. Google’s updated Sycamore, with 67 qubits, also showed supremacy in 2024.
Zuchongzhi-3 is the top quantum machine in its class
Zuchongzhi-3 improves on Zuchongzhi-2. It lasts 72 microseconds before losing coherence. It runs single-qubit gates, or simple commands, with 99.90% accuracy. Two-qubit gates, which link qubits, hit 99.62% accuracy. Readouts, or results, score 99.13% accuracy. The team tested it with an 83-qubit, 32-layer sampling task. It outran the best regular algorithm by 15 orders of magnitude. It also beat Google’s 2024 result by 6 orders of magnitude. This makes it the top quantum machine in its class.
The scientists now explore quantum error correction with a 2D grid setup for better qubit connections. This helps data move faster. They work on a surface code to catch errors, aiming to expand it. Zuchongzhi-3’s success earned praise. Experts call it a major leap from Zuchongzhi-2. Physics Magazine highlighted its importance in a special article.
A Forbes headline reads “Quantum Singularity Ahead? China’s Zuchongzhi-3 Reshapes Quantum Race.”
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