China’s ambitions to lead the quantum computing race have been evident for a long time. And the recent announcement of Zuchongzhi-3 quantum computer brings them closer to this goal. Developed by a team at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, the Zuchongzhi-3 features 105 qubits and demonstrates impressive computational capabilities.
The new system reportedly performs computations at a speed exceeding any traditional supercomputers or previous quantum computing benchmarks. Specifically, it is performing computations 10^15 times faster than the most powerful supercomputer. The Zuchongzhi-3 also features a coherence time of 72 μs, a simultaneous single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.90%, a simultaneous two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.62%, and a simultaneous readout fidelity of 99.13%.
In comparison to the western counterparts, Zuchongzhi-3 is one million times faster than Google’s Willow quantum computing chip. Willow is Google’s most recent quantum computing announcement. Previously, Google claimed computational supremacy, with Willows predecessor – Sycamore – back in 2019. Today’s announcement from China pushes Google away from that claim.
The research team from Hefei will be focusing on advancing research in quantum error correction, quantum entanglement, quantum simulation, and quantum chemistry. The quantum computing story makes headlines just hours after another China tech story – Manus AI. While the global race in quantum computing and AI remains highly competitive, China has been attracting a significant amount of attention regarding those fields.
