Looking back at the "era" of quantum computing, how did we "weave" the wonderful digital world?

From Turing's original idea to modern microchips, from the original giant brain to the smartphone in the palm of your hand, the history of computer evolution is the history of leaps in human wisdom.

Are you ready? Press Enter and enter this digital world woven by 0s and 1s.

Where to start ? The origin actually comes from here

In the long river of history, Alan Turing, a magician in the mathematics world, brought us a machine with his genius creativity - the Turing machine. This machine not only changed the direction of war, but also quietly changed the direction of society.

Turing grew up in a wealthy family in London. At the age of 14, he entered the gate of Sherborne School in the United States and began his scientific research. The wheel of history rolled forward, and the smoke of World War II ruthlessly interrupted his academic dream. At that time, in order to win the war, Germany upgraded its cryptographic equipment and began to use the Enigma cipher machine, also known as the "Enigma machine" or "Enigma cipher machine", which shows how difficult it is to decipher.

Due to the strictness of German cipher equipment, the British intelligence agencies could only monitor some confusing information when faced with important military information. The United States and France also encountered similar situations. Countries gradually realized the seriousness of the situation and began to pay attention to the cracking of the Ingelson code.

In the autumn of 1939, Turing was entrusted with the task of deciphering the Enigma cipher machine. The answer to the question "What can be built if all these technologies are put together?" seemed like a "fairy tale" to others at the time.

"We can build a computer!" After countless days and nights, Turing and his team members designed and built a machine to crack the German Engels code, which was the world's first military computer - the Turing machine.

Later, Turing machines were widely used in the military.

In 1941, the British intelligence agency used the Turing machine to accurately decipher a secret message from the German army, and easily obtained the marching route of the Bismarck, the world's most powerful giant armored battleship. The Turing machine played an indispensable role in causing such huge losses to the German army.

How to grow ? How fast can it take root and sprout ?

Since the Turing machine created ripples in the ocean of human wisdom, the development of computers has begun a magnificent journey. This technological wave has not only promoted the rapid development of computer technology, but also brought us unprecedented computing power. As time goes by, traditional computing methods are gradually approaching their physical limits, and the emergence of quantum computing heralds another leap in computing power.

Today, the development from quantum computing to quantum computers has only just passed its infancy. In order to achieve the goal of computing power far exceeding that of traditional supercomputers on specific problems, scientists have realized that they need to accurately control at least about 50 quantum bits, which is an extremely challenging goal.

Currently, only four quantum computers in the world have announced that they have achieved "quantum supremacy" , an important milestone that means that these computers have surpassed the most powerful traditional computers in certain specific tasks. It is worth mentioning that China's optical quantum computer "Jiuzhang" and superconducting quantum computer "Zu Chongzhi No. 2" occupy two of them.

Jiuzhang is derived from the ancient mathematical treatise Jiuzhang Suanshu (Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art). This book was written around the first century AD and summarizes the mathematical achievements of the Warring States, Qin, and Han dynasties. It has always been revered as the first of mathematical classics. To commemorate this book, we named the "Jiuzhang" quantum computer after it.

In 2020, the "Jiuzhang" optical quantum computing prototype solved the Gaussian boson sampling problem with a maximum of 76 photons, with a solution speed exceeding that of classical supercomputers. It was the first time in the world to achieve quantum computing superiority based on optical systems, making China the second country in the world to achieve "quantum supremacy".

The Gaussian boson sampling problem might sound a bit complicated, but let’s try to understand it with a simple example.

Suppose you are in a huge library and need to find a few specific books. With the help of traditional computers, you may need to search one by one, which is very time-consuming.

But with a quantum computer, it can check every book in the entire library at once and quickly find what you need. The higher the Gaussian boson sampling, the faster it can sift through the vast number of possibilities to find the right combination of quantum states.

The above is a brief understanding of the "Jiuzhang" optical quantum computing prototype. The "Zu Chongzhi" superconducting quantum computing prototype is equally important.

The name "Zu Chongzhi" comes from the ancient mathematician Zu Chongzhi, who, with his extraordinary talent, pushed the calculation of pi to a new level.

In 2021, we named a superconducting quantum computing prototype after him - "Zu Chongzhi". This quantum computer, with 62 superconducting quantum bits, was the programmable superconducting quantum computing prototype with the largest number of superconducting quantum bits in the world at that time, solving one complex computing problem after another.

In 2021, we welcomed "Zu Chongzhi 2", whose number of quantum bits reached 66 bits.

For example, when the number of quantum bits reaches 66 bits, it is like our quantum computer has a huge parallel processing capability, and they can exist in multiple different states at the same time. This means that it can process a large amount of information at one time, which is much more efficient than traditional computers.

The birth of "Jiuzhang" and the superconducting quantum computer "Zu Chongzhi No. 2" has made China the only country in the world to achieve "quantum computing superiority" in both superconducting quantum and optical quantum physical systems. What a proud achievement!

Quantum computing ushered in a new breakthrough in development

Based on the potential and advantages of quantum computing, in 2023, under the guidance of the Institute of Quantum Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guodun Quantum launched a new generation of quantum computing cloud platform, which is connected to a 176-bit quantum computer of the same size as Zu Chongzhi.

The Guodun Quantum Computing Cloud Platform has refreshed the record for the number of superconducting quantum computer bits on my country's cloud platform. It is the first quantum computing cloud platform open to the public that has the potential to achieve quantum superiority on the superconducting quantum route. It will further promote the development of quantum computing software and hardware and the construction of the ecosystem.

In addition, Guodun Quantum assisted China Telecom Quantum Group's "Tianyan" quantum computing cloud platform and China Telecom's "Tianyi Cloud" supercomputing platform to connect, realizing the integration of "Tianyi Cloud" supercomputing capabilities and 176-qubit superconducting quantum computing capabilities.

The above cloud platforms all plan to access the quantum computing machine developed based on the "Xiaohong" chip. Cloud access to 500+ bit quantum computers can efficiently carry users from various fields to conduct research on practical problems and algorithms, accelerate the application of quantum computing in actual scenarios, and lead the rapid development of the quantum computing ecosystem.

It can be said that to date, my country's quantum computing has achieved a historic leap from following and running side by side to partially leading. So, how will quantum computing develop in the future?

Pan Jianwei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, answered this question.

"In the next 3-5 years, we hope to find one or two application examples in solving certain specific physical problems or chemical material problems. These problems cannot be solved by supercomputers and must be solved by dedicated quantum computers or quantum simulators. In the near future, quantum computing will make relatively good progress."

The future of quantum computing is full of infinite possibilities. Let us wait and see, and witness the arrival of this technological revolution together!