Google unveils 'mind-boggling' quantum computing chip

[Claira]

Google has unveiled a new chip which it claims takes five minutes to solve a problem that would currently take the world's fastest super computers ten septillion – or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years – to complete.

The chip is the latest development in a field known as quantum computing - which is attempting to use the principles of particle physics to create a new type of mind-bogglingly powerful computer.

Google says its new quantum chip, dubbed "Willow", incorporates key "breakthroughs" and "paves the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer." However experts say Willow is, for now, a largely experimental device, meaning a quantum computer powerful enough to solve a wide range of real-world problems is still years - and billions of dollars - away.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c791ng0zvl3o

[Alchopwn]

So it is the latest thing the military has released to the public, huh?

Edited December 10, 2024 by Alchopwn

[Claira]

4 hours ago, Alchopwn said:

So it is the latest thing the military has released to the public, huh?

It has nothing to do with the military, nor has it been released to the public. Still in its experimental stage, the chip represents a significant step forward towards the development of quantum computers.

[Trelane]

So, this will be implanted into Emperor Bezos' brain? 😜

[Abramelin]

15 hours ago, Claira said:

Google has unveiled a new chip which it claims takes five minutes to solve a problem that would currently take the world's fastest super computers ten septillion – or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years – to complete.

The chip is the latest development in a field known as quantum computing - which is attempting to use the principles of particle physics to create a new type of mind-bogglingly powerful computer.

Google says its new quantum chip, dubbed "Willow", incorporates key "breakthroughs" and "paves the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer." However experts say Willow is, for now, a largely experimental device, meaning a quantum computer powerful enough to solve a wide range of real-world problems is still years - and billions of dollars - away.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c791ng0zvl3o

I wonder why this chip is called "Willow".

[Claira]

49 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

I wonder why this chip is called "Willow".

I've no idea, but coincidentally, that's also my cat's name.

The following is Google's article on Willow. There's no mention of why/how they came up with the name, but they do offer more information on the quantum chip.

Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip
https://blog.google/technology/research/google-willow-quantum-chip/

[Trelane]

1 hour ago, Abramelin said:

I wonder why this chip is called "Willow".

Probably one of the engineers' stupid kids names.

[Abramelin]

1 hour ago, Claira said:

I've no idea, but coincidentally, that's also my cat's name.

Heh. Ok, tell us why you named your cat 'Willow'. Maybe it will give us a clue about that chip's name.

'Willow' as a name for a cat is kind of odd, agreed?

[Claira]

37 minutes ago, Abramelin said:

Heh. Ok, tell us why you named your cat 'Willow'. Maybe it will give us a clue about that chip's name.

'Willow' as a name for a cat is kind of odd, agreed?

Not odd at all. She was named after the ***** Willow plant.

[Buzz_Light_Year]

Probably derived the name from folklore and mythology. 

https://druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-tree-lore/willow

[Chaldon]

Quantum computers are not Turing-complete, i.e. they cannot, and theoretically will never be able to do cycles, only single-line computations. The line can be very long but it is defined by the number of cubits. In other terms, they can only compute very complex algebra but they cannot do what normal computers can: process the results of their own computations over and over again with the speed they compute algebra. Thus their use is limited to mathematics, mostly statistics.

Edited December 11, 2024 by Chaldon

[josellama2000]

Ha ha, "google's quantum computing chip" so super-duper-ultra-max powerful that it can defy the semantics.

 

by definition, if you can interact with something, that something belongs to your universe.

[+Razman]

“They not sure how it works , maybe interacts with parallel universes. 

[Gumball]

How can you build something that you don't know how it works?

[Black Red Devil]

So my understanding of what a quantum computer will be capable of doing was made easier by an analogy I heard (or read, can't remember) a while back.  Basically a "quantum computers for dummies" moment.

More or less this was the analogy: If you go to a library with thousands of books on the shelves and every book, every page, and every book location on the shelves is listed on a modern day computer database, it would take this computer so many calculations to find a specific word from a specific book by searching it's location and pages etc.  A quantum computer due to its superposition qualities would be able to process the location, page etc. instantaneously.

Obviously this a simplified example just for ease of understanding and in real time even a normal computer would be able to process such a simple search instantaneously but with more complex solutions that's where the you get those extreme variations as mentioned in the OP.

Edited December 12, 2024 by Black Red Devil

[Cho Jinn]

That is one shiny random number generator.

[Freez1]

Maybe they use it to Google their way out of the Monopoly they are going to court over that can put them out of the search engine industry.