Chinese Scientists Make Breakthrough in Quantum Computing

[Beast]

Well that is a propaganda report calling for more funds.

Also higher salaries matter. Top talent is extremely mobile. If it gets good salary somewhere else, they just move there.

If the fund is enough , why even need a propaganda for more funding? You mean those greedy US scientist actually never put their heart into work but greed?

No wonder China is leading

 

[The SC]

Diamonds are for error: Chinese team clear ‘error’ hurdle to pave way for quantum computer that could make geniuses of us all

Scientists create world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer in piece of precious mineral, say nation could have first one for commercial use within a decade.

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 09 December, 2015, 1:00pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 09 December, 2015, 1:00pm

Stephen Chen


The Chinese team have created a new quantum computing system in diamond which they say can continue operating properly in the event of the failure of one or more qubits. A qubit (quantum bit) is how such computers see and store information. The development of quantum computers has been handicapped by two key errors they often encounter that make their results unreliable. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Chinese scientists have built the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer in a piece of diamond and it will eventually be able to find - in the blink of an eye - passwords and other encrypted information that regular computers need years or decades to uncover, they said.

As such, the breakthrough, coupled with other technological advances over the last few years by companies such as IBM, led the team to make a bold and unsettling prediction: The nation’s first quantum computer should be ready for commercial use within a decade.

These are able to sort through huge reams of data to solve complex problems at a much faster rate than traditional computers, but their development has been handicapped by key errors they encounter.

A team of researchers at IBM cleared one of these hurdles in May by building a four-qubit network they said can detect the two most troublesome quantum errors: Bit-flip errors

(when bits change values due to interference) and phase errors (here, the sign of the phase relationship between 0 and 1 can flip when in a superposition state).

Regular computers contend with errors of the first kind but not the second, which are harder to detect and fix.

It was previously not considered possible to deal with both errors at the same time, something required for quantum computers to work properly.

The IBM team solved this problem using a phenomenon called entanglement, by which qubits can nearly instantaneously share information with other qubits.


China also plans to launch the world’s first quantum communication satellite next year. It will encrypt information with quantum mechanics so that even a quantum computer cannot, in theory, decipher the content. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Qubits are the main data components used in quantum computers. Whereas other machines see information in the form of bits that carry a value of 1 or 0, quantum computers see qubits - single atoms that can be 1, 0 or both at the same time due to a phenomenon known as quantum superposition.

READ MORE: New ‘phantom particle’ discovered by Chinese scientists could mean you only need to charge your smartphone once a year

This is what enables them to conduct many more calculations simultaneously than binary computers.

Now a group of local researchers led by Professor Du Jiangfeng at the University of Science and Technology of China have created a new system which, they say, can continue operating properly in the event of the failure of one or more qubits.

They published their findings in a recent paper in the journal Nature Communications.

Their quantum computing system can operate at room temperature because it is hosted in parts of a diamond lacking in nitrogen, they reported.

While such systems would ordinarily require a climate-controlled lab, the team’s finding paves the way for such computers to operate safely in regular buildings, they said.

Quantum computers were considered a distant dream by most scientists as recently as two or three years ago. Many expected it would take decades before they could be put to practical use due to the bewildering array of unsolved technical challenges.

One of these was the unstable nature of qubits, which can make their results unreliable. Other problems relate to the storage, transportation and manipulation of quantum data.

But a series of recent advances have sparked a new sense of optimism among the mainstream scientific community.

Some commercial systems built to exploit properties of quantum mechanics for special calculations have been developed and purchased by high-profile users such as Lockheed Martin and Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States.


Pan Jianwei. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Prototypes of “quantum chips” have been developed using various platforms including superconductive materials and even traditional silicon by scientists at universities and companies such as IBM.

The Chinese team opted to use diamond.

Pan Jianwei, a lead scientist in the field of quantum computing who works at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told local media earlier this year that the academy was hoping to build a quantum super computer in the next 10 to 15 years.

Such a computer has the potential to change the world by operating at speeds that are 10 quadrillion times faster than current super computers, Pan said.

If created, this would bestow on each Chinese citizen the “exclusive calculation power equivalent to several hundred million units of Tianhe-2,” he said, referring to the country’s fastest super computer.

The upbeat mood in this field has attracted many private Chinese investors.

READ MORE: Hong Kong start-up developing quantum computing solutions for banking and finance

In July, e-commerce giant Alibaba invested US$1 billion in Pan’s quantum super computer project in hope of exploiting the technology for commercial use, such as improving the performance and security of its cloud service.

The first goal of the joint venture was to build a 16-qubit system with a performance equivalent to that of Tianhe-2 by the end of this year.

The work by Du’s team has removed a major obstacle towards producing a quantum computer for practical use, according to Professor Yu Yang, a quantum computing scientist at Nanjing University’s School of Physics in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.

“We are now a step closer to bringing the quantum computer from science fiction to real life,” said Yu, who was aware of but not involved in the research.

Du’s team developed an ingenious method to reduce the noise plaguing the diamond-based system, which significantly improved the system’s reliability, they claimed.

But the work also revealed more challenges in the road ahead.

For instance, the fault-tolerant performance could only be achieved with one qubit. When two qubits were involved, the system’s reliability dropped significantly, they said.

It is crucial to maintain a high level of reliability as more qubits are added because these enhance the overall computing power.

The use of diamond as a host material also has its limits, Yu said, as many qubits would be needed to power quantum computers.

“This would be one ‘jewelry box’ most users couldn’t afford,” he said.

Diamonds are for error: Chinese team clear ‘error’ hurdle to pave way for quantum computer that could make geniuses of us all | South China Morning Post

Sound like an AESA diamond quantum computer..

 

[onebyone]

China already has the world's fastest supercomputer and has now built a crude quantum computer that could outpace today's PCs and servers. Similar computers have already been built by companies like IBM and D-Wave ("quantum annealing"), Chinese researchers have taken a different approach. They are introducing quantum computing using multiple photons, which could provide a superior way to calculate compared to today's computers.

The Chinese quantum computing architecture allows for five-photon sampling and entanglement. It's an improvement over previous experiments involving single-photon sourcing, up to 24,000 times faster, the researchers claimed. The Chinese researchers have built components required for Boson sampling, which has been theorized for a long time and is considered an easy way to build a quantum computer. The architecture built by the Chinese can include a large number of photons, which increases the speed and scale of computing.

China is strengthening its technology arsenal in an effort to be self-sufficient. China's homegrown chip powers TaihuLight, the world's fastest computer.

In 2014, China said it would spend US$150 billion on semiconductor development so that PCs and mobile devices would convert to homegrown chips. Afraid that low-cost Chinese chips will flood the market, the U.S. earlier this year accused China of rigging the semiconductor market to its advantage.

It's not clear yet if a quantum computer is on China's national agenda. But China's rapid progress of technology is worrying countries like the U.S. A superfast quantum computer could enhance the country's progress in areas like weapons development, in which high-performance computers are key.

But there's a long way to go before China builds its first full-fledged quantum computer. The prototype quantum computer is good for specific uses but is not designed to be a universal quantum computer that can run any task.

non-abelian anyons.

In a bid to build computers of the future, China has also built a neuromorphic chip called Darwin.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3194...er-to-high-performance-computing-arsenal.html

 

[Jlaw]

China already has the world's fastest supercomputer and has now built a crude quantum computer that could outpace today's PCs and servers. Similar computers have already been built by companies like IBM and D-Wave ("quantum annealing"), Chinese researchers have taken a different approach. They are introducing quantum computing using multiple photons, which could provide a superior way to calculate compared to today's computers.

The Chinese quantum computing architecture allows for five-photon sampling and entanglement. It's an improvement over previous experiments involving single-photon sourcing, up to 24,000 times faster, the researchers claimed. The Chinese researchers have built components required for Boson sampling, which has been theorized for a long time and is considered an easy way to build a quantum computer. The architecture built by the Chinese can include a large number of photons, which increases the speed and scale of computing.

China is strengthening its technology arsenal in an effort to be self-sufficient. China's homegrown chip powers TaihuLight, the world's fastest computer.

In 2014, China said it would spend US$150 billion on semiconductor development so that PCs and mobile devices would convert to homegrown chips. Afraid that low-cost Chinese chips will flood the market, the U.S. earlier this year accused China of rigging the semiconductor market to its advantage.

It's not clear yet if a quantum computer is on China's national agenda. But China's rapid progress of technology is worrying countries like the U.S. A superfast quantum computer could enhance the country's progress in areas like weapons development, in which high-performance computers are key.

But there's a long way to go before China builds its first full-fledged quantum computer. The prototype quantum computer is good for specific uses but is not designed to be a universal quantum computer that can run any task.

non-abelian anyons.

In a bid to build computers of the future, China has also built a neuromorphic chip called Darwin.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3194...er-to-high-performance-computing-arsenal.html

US is turning into india. Always afraid of someone beating them.

 

[Godman]

China is very good at quantum cryptography that is okay. But it is a well known fact that research in US has already gone underground. Meaning it has been taken by defense establishment.

Apart from that, remember this is a boson sampling machine. This is a non-universal quantum computer. The scientists have stated that it is 24,000 times faster than other Boson sampling machines.

It doesn't state that it is that faster than other computers.



The US spends more on quantum computing, and quantum research than China.

From the article published in Nature Photonics:

http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journ...photon.2017.63.html#supplementary-information

Quantum computers1 can, in principle, solve certain problems faster than classical computers. Despite substantial progress in the past two decades2, 3, 4, building quantum machines that can actually outperform classical computers for some specific tasks—an important milestone termed ‘quantum supremacy’—remains challenging. In the quest of demonstrating quantum supremacy, boson sampling, an intermediate (that is, non-universal) quantum computer model proposed by Aaronson and Arkhipov5, has received considerable interest as it requires fewer physical resources than building universal optical quantum computers6.

Read this again.

This is a non-universal quantum computer. If one were to explain this in simple english, this can't be called a quantum computer. @Beast

Just because USA is doing a lot of research on the same subject doesn't mean you can downplay Chinese projects. "Going underground" is a vague statement and even Chinese research on Quantum computing is backed by the government for military applications

 

[Shotgunner51]

In a bid to build computers of the future, China has also built a neuromorphic chip called Darwin.

Yes that's correct.

China successfully developed 'Darwin,' a neuromorphic chip based on Spiking Neural Networks
22-Dec-2015
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/scp-csd122215.php

AI researchers develop 'Darwin,' a neuromorphic chip based on spiking neural networks
December 23, 2015
https://phys.org/news/2015-12-ai-darwin-neuromorphic-chip-based.html​

And there's a thread here on PDF as well, see https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/chin...processing-in-ai-and-iot.414803/#post-8023039

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

has now built a crude quantum computer that could outpace today's PCs and servers.

Totally incorrect. It is 10-100 times faster than ENIAC.

ENIAC had a computing power of 500 flops. So this machine is around 5k to 50 k flops.

A modern PC has a HUGE HUGE amount larger computing power. Intel's processors run at 200 Giga flops.

There are multiple ways to build a quantum computer, including via superconducting qubits, which is the building block for D-Wave Systems' systems. Like the Chinese system, D-Wave's quantum annealing method is another easy way to build a quantum computer but is not considered ideal for a universal quantum computer.

IBM already has a 5-qubit quantum computer that is available via the cloud. It is now chasing a universal quantum computer using superconducting qubits but has a different gating model to stabilize systems. Microsoft is trying to chase a new quantum computer based on a new topography and a yet-undiscovered particle called non-abelian anyons.

That is what I have been saying forever. This computer is a non-universal quantum computer.

D-Wave is also like this. @cirr Don't you remember referring to D-Wave as a fake quantum computer? Well, this quantum computer is also a non-universal quantum computer.

Also, while China has no company involved in quantum computing, US has IBM, Microsoft, Google, Lockheed Martin, and many other companies involved.

Alibaba just started one lab in Shanghai, but that has NO independent researchers that I know of. It is working today just as additional money for Hefei scientists led by Pan Jianwei.

If the fund is enough , why even need a propaganda for more funding? You mean those greedy US scientist actually never put their heart into work but greed?

No wonder China is leading

Funds in science are never enough. Surely, US spends far more than China on quantum computing, however they would like even more.

In fact when you are trying to change the whole IT infrastructure of the world, all software, hardware, everything, you can't have enough funds ever.

US is turning into india. Always afraid of someone beating them.

The hallmark of a great power is self-criticism and self reflection. US shows those characteristics.

Just because USA is doing a lot of research on the same subject doesn't mean you can downplay Chinese projects. "Going underground" is a vague statement and even Chinese research on Quantum computing is backed by the government for military applications

When am I downplaying the research ?

Surely, China is an active member of the community of quantum computing.

However, members here are explicitly making the wrong point of declaring their supremacy over US, which is totally incorrect.

Of course China has some research in the military arena. But all of China's top scientists are working in public science.

In contrast, US research has gone underground, because many scientists who were actively publishing in the field, have suddenly gone silent. You think that they have just left the field?

Let me remind you the last time this happened. During the era of Nuclear Research during the 1930s, suddenly publishing by top scientists, universities, and labs decreased immensely.

It was during this time that a Russian Scientist began to suspect that the research has gone underground. By this time however, the possibility of building an atomic weapon was already established. The scientist made the correct assessment that Americans are building the Atomic Bomb.

He then quickly wrote a letter to Stalin and called for an atomic weapons programme of the Soviet Union.

Today it is exactly the same. After basic research in quantum computing after which it was established that quantum computers can be built, US has gone underground already.

And this has also been mentioned by Anton Zeilinger, who was the mentor of Pan Jianwei, and is perhaps the leading scientist in the field of quantum cryptography.

 

[onebyone]

Chinese researchers have built a 10 qubit quantum computer.

China builds ten qubit quantum computer, They will scale to 20 qubits by end of this year and could beat the performance of any regular computer next year with a 30 qubit system.

A chinese research team led by Pan Jianwei is exploring three technical routes to quantum computers:
1. systems based on single photons,
2. ultra-cold atoms and
3. superconducting circuits.

Experimental set-up for multiphoton boson-sampling. The set-up includes four key parts: the single-photon device, demultiplexers, ultra-low-loss photonic circuit and detectors. The single-photon device is a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot coupled to a 2-µm-diameter micropillar cavity

Pan Jianwei and his colleagues – Lu Chaoyang and Zhu Xiaobo, of the University of Science and Technology of China, and Wang Haohua, of Zhejiang University – set two international records in quantum control of the maximal numbers of entangled photonic quantum bits And entangled superconducting quantum bits.

Pan doubling that manipulation of multi-particle entanglement is the core of quantum computing technology and has been the focus of international competition in quantum computing research.
In the photonic system, his team has made the first 5, 6, 8 and 10 entangled photons in the world and is at the forefront of global developments.

Last year, Pan and Lu Chaoyang developed the world’s best single photon source based on semiconductor quantum dots. Now, they are using the high-performance single photon source and electronically programmable photonic circuit to build a multi-photon quantum computing prototype to run the Boson Sampling task.

The Chinese photonic computer is 10 to 100 times faster than the first electronic computer, ENIAC, and the first transistor computer, TRADIC, in running the classical algorithm.

The Hefei reporter ‘quantum device, called a boson sampling machine, can now carry out calculations for five photons, but at a speed 24,000 times than previous experiments.

ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7200 crystal diodes, 1500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and approximately 5,000,000 hand-soldered joints. It could perform 5000 simple addition or subtraction operations per second. ENIAC could perform 500 floating point operations per second.

The Chinese team led by Pan, Zhu Xiaobo and Wang Haohua have broken that record. They dependent developed a superconducting quantum circuit containing 10 superconducting quantum bits and successfully entangled the 10 quantum bits through a global quantum operation.

Nature Photonics – High-efficiency multiphoton boson sampling

They will try to design and manipulate 20 superconducting quantum bits by the end of the year. They also plan to launch a quantum cloud computing platform by the end of this year.

“Our architecture is feasible to be scaled up to a larger number of photons and with a higher rate to race against increasingly advanced computers,” they said in the research paper.

Professor Scott Aaronson, who is based at the University of Texas at Austin and proposed the idea of the boson sampling machine, questioned whether it was useful to compare the latest results with technology developed over 60 years ago, but he said the research had shown ” Exciting experimental progress “.

“It’s a step towards boson sampling with say 30 photons or some number that’s large enough that no one will have to squint or argue about whether a quantum advantage has been attained,” he said.

Araronson said one of the main purposes of making boson sampling machines was to prove that quantum devices could be shown to have an advantage in one area of complex calculations over existing types of computer.

“Doing so would answer the quantum computing sceptics and help pave the way towards universal quantum computation,” he said.

Abstract

Boson sampling is considered as a strong candidate to demonstrate ‘quantum computational supremacy’ over classical computers. However, previous proof-of-principle experiments suffered from small photon number and low sampling rates owing to the inefficiencies of the single-photon sources and multiport optical interferometers. Here, we develop two central components for high-performance boson sampling: robust multiphoton interferometers with 99% transmission rate and actively demultiplexed single-photon sources based on a quantum dot–micropillar with simultaneously high efficiency, purity and indistinguishability. We implement and validate three-, four- and five-photon boson sampling, and achieve sampling rates of 4.96 kHz, 151 Hz and 4 Hz, respectively, which are over 24,000 times faster than previous experiments. Our architecture can be scaled up for a larger number of photons and with higher sampling rates to compete with classical computers, and might provide experimental evidence against the extended Church–Turing thesis.

18 pages of supplemental material


http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/0...ould-any-beat-regular-computer-next-year.html

 

[onebyone]

Scott Amyx talks about world's first quantum computing machine

Scott Amyx talks about world's first quantum computing machine

How does China's quantum satellite work?

 

[Han Patriot]

Totally incorrect. It is 10-100 times faster than ENIAC.

ENIAC had a computing power of 500 flops. So this machine is around 5k to 50 k flops.

A modern PC has a HUGE HUGE amount larger computing power. Intel's processors run at 200 Giga flops.

Can you tell me currently any other quantum computer performing at this scale? The debate here is whether China is at the forefront of Quantum Computing Research not whether China created a Universal Quantum Computer. NOBODY HAS created an Universal Quantum Computer. Get it genius?

That is what I have been saying forever. This computer is a non-universal quantum computer.

D-Wave is also like this. @cirr Don't you remember referring to D-Wave as a fake quantum computer? Well, this quantum computer is also a non-universal quantum computer.

Also, while China has no company involved in quantum computing, US has IBM, Microsoft, Google, Lockheed Martin, and many other companies involved.

Alibaba just started one lab in Shanghai, but that has NO independent researchers that I know of. It is working today just as additional money for Hefei scientists led by Pan Jianwei.

Are you a quantum computing researcher? You mean to tell me you know every single researcher in ALIBABA lab? And yet you have the time to lurk in PDF? Quantum Research in India is basically ZERO!

Funds in science are never enough. Surely, US spends far more than China on quantum computing, however they would like even more.

In fact when you are trying to change the whole IT infrastructure of the world, all software, hardware, everything, you can't have enough funds ever.

Can you tell me how much China spends on quantum computing and how much US spends?

The hallmark of a great power is self-criticism and self reflection. US shows those characteristics.

What exactly are we supposed to criticize here? What should China criticize herself about? They did not brag, they merely stated the fact that a team of her own researcher achieved a breakthrough.

When am I downplaying the research ?

You need to self reflect here

China is an active member of the community of quantum computing.

However, members here are explicitly making the wrong point of declaring their supremacy over US, which is totally incorrect.

There are 1 billion Chinese. He should self reflect but not CHINA. China did achieve supremacy over US in quantum telecom and this form of quantum computing. This is a FACT! It's not boasting nor bragging unlike your cultural propensity. Btw, stop saying quantum field is so wide, there are quantum apples, quantum pears, as long as there are atoms, everything has a quantum component. The point here is for the foreseeable future, there are only two tangible and realistic applications, communications and computing. Encryption is part of communications, there is no point encrypting and you can't transmit data right? China is LEADING in communications and a part of computing. THIS IS A FACT!! Get it into your brain. We do not talk more than we do unlike your country. WE DO and we declare.

Of course China has some research in the military arena. But all of China's top scientists are working in public science.

In contrast, US research has gone underground, because many scientists who were actively publishing in the field, have suddenly gone silent. You think that they have just left the field?

Oh, so now you know all CHINESE quantum scientist and you even know our military research scale? What makes you think our military doesn't have an underground research team? Unlike India, we don't declare what we are going to research for the next 50 years and nothing happens. I always remind Chinese, we don't have to spy on India, they will declare it and you just add a few decades before they achieve anything.

Before Taihulight, the Americans thought we didn't have any state of the art processor. Overnight, it came out as a shock a Chin* had the fastest supercomputer. They thought we only had J10 and stealth was decades away, overnight, 2 stealth fighters came out. Hell, they didn't think we had AESA radars, Quantum radars.

Have you ever wondered that these were all developed underground before we unveil it? We don't like to brag, but what you see now is what we let you see, there are technologies being developed underground now that are not revealed. China spends like 150bil on military, you see us importing billions like India? Apart from general expenditure and maintenance,where do you think the extra money goes?

 

[Godman]

When am I downplaying the research ?

Surely, China is an active member of the community of quantum computing.

However, members here are explicitly making the wrong point of declaring their supremacy over US, which is totally incorrect.

Of course China has some research in the military arena. But all of China's top scientists are working in public science.

In contrast, US research has gone underground, because many scientists who were actively publishing in the field, have suddenly gone silent. You think that they have just left the field?

Let me remind you the last time this happened. During the era of Nuclear Research during the 1930s, suddenly publishing by top scientists, universities, and labs decreased immensely.

It was during this time that a Russian Scientist began to suspect that the research has gone underground. By this time however, the possibility of building an atomic weapon was already established. The scientist made the correct assessment that Americans are building the Atomic Bomb.

He then quickly wrote a letter to Stalin and called for an atomic weapons programme of the Soviet Union.

Today it is exactly the same. After basic research in quantum computing after which it was established that quantum computers can be built, US has gone underground already.

And this has also been mentioned by Anton Zeilinger, who was the mentor of Pan Jianwei, and is perhaps the leading scientist in the field of quantum cryptography.

How do you know Chinese doens't have secret projects? And you are obviosuly trying to say Chinese are way behind in Quantum Computing

 

[Jacob Martin]

This thread is quite long so I don't know whether this has already been posted here.

Like all computing, quantum computers have a hardware and software aspect. Gains in speed have to be mated with reprogrammability, without which the quantum computer us limited in its calculation ability.

The challenge being faced is how to make them handle more than one algorithm. So far, quantum computers are able to attack only one algorithm at a time. A breakthrough was made in reprogrammable quantum computing last year by a team from University of Maryland.

https://www.google.co.in/amp/amp.livescience.com/55642-reprogrammable-quantum-computer-created.html

Although this was a limited breakthrough. More needs to be done in this area.

 

[Offshore]

How do you know Chinese doens't have secret projects? And you are obviosuly trying to say Chinese are way behind in Quantum Computing

To be honest, he just can't accept reality that we surpass American in Quantum field.
His Ego won't accept that.

Indian might have zero knowledge about Quantum field , but one thing for sure
They born with Quantum mouth since day 1..

 

[Han Patriot]

To be honest, he just can't accept reality that we surpass American in Quantum field.
His Ego won't accept that.

Indian might have zero knowledge about Quantum field , but one thing for sure
They born with Quantum mouth since day 1..

Quantum mouth...now that's an epic term! LOL

 

[xunzi]

Did I just read someone by the name of @Bussard Ramjet mentioned that the US decided to go underground with quantum research because it appeared to resemble what the US did with the nuclear bomb research? LOL That is one biggest joke I ever heard. LOL

He is basically putting quantum research (no real threat) on the same level as making a nuclear bomb research. The reason the US went underground with nuke bomb research is due to the sensitivity of war at the time. Quantum research is not that dangerous to go underground about it. Beside any scientist would take every chance and opportunity to publish their research finding to get recognization and chance of winning prize.

Now the real reality is that n term of Quantum Research, there are only 2 countries in the race, China and the USA. Everyone is a distant 2nd. Who lead this race remains to be seen. But the USA is as clueless about making a universal quantum computer as we do. There are many challenges just as making a commercialized fusion reactor. But in the quantum communication, China is way ahead of the game.