What is Quantum Supremacy? Did google achieve it?
We have been hearing for a while about the news that Google had achieved the quantum supremacy by developing its own Quantum Chip "SYCAMORE".Google stated that it performed a task in almost 200 seconds whereas a Classical computer would take near 10,000 years to achieve the same result!
So the talk comes here, What is Quantum Supremacy and what it would do, what impact it would leave on the upcoming generations and future technologies? why there are still claims that google hasn't achieved Quantum supremacy? How near are we to the world of quantum supremacy to take over the classical computers?
Let's get started with the Difference between classical computing and quantum computing. The computers we use to perform the tasks by classical computing techniques, in essence, Classical computing performs calculations and tasks using bits OFF(0) state and ON (1) state. Classical computers use transistors to process information in the form of sequences of Zeros and ones called the computer binary language. The processor contains millions to billions of transistors that would make the processing faster and faster. more transistors more processing ability.
Whereas a Quantum computer uses the laws of quantum mechanics, both the states of ON(1) and OFF(0) can be achieved in quantum computing. But it can also be in the mixed state, which can be in multiple states simultaneously. This phenomenon is called Superposition, this is performed in the form of QUBITS(both 0 and one) at the same time giving more processing power!
Nasa and Google have been working collaboratively on a Quantum Computing project and there were hints as earlier this year that Google is on the verge of cracking Quantum Supremacy. A few weeks back in September, a leaked paper from Google was posted on NASA's website and taken down immediately. But the internet being internet copies of the paper resurfaced again since then there is a lot of discussion going on.
The paper was titled Quantum Supremacy using a Programmable Superconducting Processor. According to Google's claim, for the first time, a 53 qubit quantum computer used quantum properties to surpass a classical machine at a specific task thereby achieving Quantum Supremacy.
Producing 1M random numbers on the quantum processor takes a mere 200 seconds in comparison to 10,000 years that a classical supercomputer would take. Afterall 10,000 years from now none of us would be left to verify the samples which would take millions of years more.
The current quantum computer used by google popularly known as Sycamore uses only 53 physical qubits, which was developed after the 72 physical qubit computer turned out too difficult to control. Scaling quantum computers is no easy task, the more qubits you add the more unstable the system becomes.
IBM has already pushed back on that claim, insisting that with some clever classical programming, its machine can solve the problem in 2.5 days. Indeed, IBM, which has its 53-qubit quantum computer, prefers a higher threshold for quantum supremacy, which explains its argument that Google has not yet reached the milestone. Even if you accept IBM's claims at face value, Google's quantum computer is still a big step forward, says Ciarán Gilligan-Lee at University College London. "IBM is claiming that, even when running the world's largest computer for two and a half days, and running petabytes of memory, they can simulate what the quantum chip does in 200 seconds. When you put it into context, it is still a pretty impressive