8 Feb. () –
A team from the University of Sussex has transferred quantum information between computer chips at record speed and precision, a step forward for a multitasking quantum computer.
According to Professor Winfried Hensinger, who led the research, the new breakthrough paves the way for systems that can solve complex real-world problems that the best computers we have today are incapable of.
“Right now we have quantum computers with very simple microchips,” he explains. “What we have achieved here is the ability to make extremely powerful quantum computers. capable of solving some of the most important problems for industries and society”.
Computers today solve problems linearly, one calculation at a time. In the quantum realm, particles can be in two places at the same time, and researchers want to take advantage of this property to develop computers capable of performing multiple computations at once.
One stumbling block has been the need to transfer quantum information between chips quickly and reliably: the information is degraded and errors are introduced.
But Professor Hensinger’s team has made a breakthrough, published in the journal Nature Communications, that may have cleared that hurdle, reports the BBC.
The team has developed a system capable of transporting information from one chip to another with a reliability of 99.999993% at record speeds. According to the researchers, this shows that, in principle, the chips could be put together to create a more powerful quantum computer.
