Chinese scientists build world's first quantum computing machine that goes beyond existing supercomputers

Marking excellence in the arena of 'Quantum Cryptography', China has built the world's first quantum computing machine that goes beyond the early conventional or classical computers.

Announcing their achievement at the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Studies of University of Science and Technology of China on Wednesday, scientists stated that  quantum computing could in some ways dwarf the processing power of existing supercomputers.

Classical computers operate in bits, with each bit being either a 0 or 1. Quantum computers, by contrast, operate in quantum bits, or qubits, which can be both 0 and 1 simultaneously. Therefore, quantum computers can do nearly infinite calculations at once, rather than sequentially, making it the clear and the first choice for the researchers.

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Pan Jianwei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a leading quantum physicist, said quantum computing exploits the fundamental quantum superposition principle to enable ultra-fast parallel calculation and simulation capabilities.

Pan explained 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 achieved the first 5, 6, 8 and 10 entangled photons in the world and is at the forefront of developments.

Due to the enormous potential of quantum computing, Europe and the US are actively collaborating in their research. High-tech companies, such as Google, Microsoft and IBM, also have massive interests in quantum computing research.

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The achievement was published in the journal Nature Photonics.