How China and India are racing to compete in developing quantum computers?
(Baonghean.vn) - China and India, the two countries with the largest populations in the world, are competing with each other by developing their own 1,000 qubit quantum computers, a goal that US-based IBM will achieve this year.
What is a qubit?
While traditional computers rely on binary bits—on or off, denoted as 1 and 0—to process information, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which are represented by quantum particles. The manipulation of qubits by control devices is at the heart of the processing power in quantum computers.
Qubits in a quantum computer are similar to bits in a traditional computer. At its core, a traditional computer's processor does all its work by manipulating bits. Similarly, a quantum processor does all its work by manipulating qubits.
The leap from dual to multivariate processing increases computing power exponentially. From there, complex problems that would take the most powerful supercomputer years to solve will be completed in seconds by quantum computers.
India is lagging behind China in quantum computer production
The Indian government in April this year approved a $730 million funding package for the country's National Quantum Mission (NQM) program, which aims to deliver medium-scale quantum computers with 50-1,000 physical qubits by 2031.
In June, the US and India established the India-US Joint Quantum Coordination Mechanism to facilitate collaboration between industry, academia and government organizations, and the two countries are also working towards a comprehensive Quantum Information Science and Technology agreement.
But currently, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and IT company Tata Consultancy Services are still developing a 7-qubit quantum computer in India.
Meanwhile, in May 2021, Chinese scientist Pan Jianwei and his team at the University of Science and Technology of China launched the 66-qubit quantum computer Zuchongzhi-2, which remains the fastest quantum computer in China.
In September 2021, Origin Quantum, a quantum computer manufacturer based in Hefei, China, announced that it would launch a 1,000-qubit quantum computer by 2025. However, the company is having difficulty launching its 72-qubit Wukong quantum computer, named after the Monkey King in Chinese mythology. Currently, the fastest quantum computer produced by Origin Quantum, called Benyuan Wuyuan, launched in 2021, only has a speed of 24 qubits.
“The research and production of the Wukong quantum computer is still going smoothly at the moment. It will be officially launched at the end of this year. After that, we will continue to develop a quantum computer with a speed of over 72 qubits,” said Zhang Hui, General Manager of Origin Quantum.
Mr. Zhang said that Origin Quantum was founded in 2017 with the desire to turn China's scientific research achievements into products with practical applications. He said the company spent three years trying to self-supply all the components in its products.
Zhang said quantum computers would only be commercially viable if they reached speeds of 50 to 100 qubits. Since last year, the company has been exploring applications of quantum computing in finance, biomedicine and artificial intelligence, he said.
Some scientists have shown that a 30-qubit quantum computer has the computing power of a supercomputer with a speed of 1 teraflop (one trillion calculations per second) while a 50-qubit quantum computer is faster than a supercomputer when performing certain tasks.
Will US sanctions affect China's quantum computing development?
Last October, the Biden administration banned the export of advanced semiconductors, semiconductor chip manufacturing equipment, quantum computers and supercomputers to China to prevent the Chinese military from using these products, especially in the manufacture of hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence-based navigation systems.
In August this year, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning US companies and funds from investing in China's semiconductor, AI and quantum computing sectors from 2024.
Origin Quantum is unlikely to be affected by US investment restrictions as it has not received any foreign investment. In addition, the company also outsources the production of superconducting chips to Nexchip Semiconductor Corp, which is 52.99% owned by the Hefei government and 27.44% owned by Taiwanese semiconductor maker Powerchip Technology. Production will not be affected by US export controls and sanctions.
Chinese commentators want Origin Quantum to launch Wukong as soon as possible.
“Quantum chips have much stronger computing power than traditional semiconductors. Once quantum chip technology matures, we can reduce our dependence on advanced lithography technology and become self-sufficient in high-end chips,” said a Chinese semiconductor expert.
The development of quantum computers will have strategic significance for the global supply chain in the semiconductor field. The successful launch of the 5G smartphone Mate60 Pro using Huawei's 7nm semiconductor chip has proven that China is not afraid of foreign technology blockade and blockade.
Dou Meng, Vice President of Origin Quantum, told the media on September 19 that the company will explore using its quantum computer in medical data analysis.
“Quantum computing has advantages in graphics processing. To explore applications in medical data analysis, we used our self-developed algorithm to process images of cancer patients provided by Bengbu Medical College and reduced processing time compared to traditional computers,” added Dou Meng.
Can India Catch Up with China in the Quantum Computing Race?
Last November, IBM unveiled the 433-qubit Osprey quantum computer, the world's fastest quantum computer to date. The tech giant plans to launch the 1,121-qubit Condor quantum computer this year.
Some technology experts believe that once a quantum computer has more than 1,000 physical qubits, it could have more than 50 logical qubits, or usable ones, enough to perform various calculations and create commercial value.
The US said on June 22 that it welcomes India's participation in the Quantum Economic Development Consortium to facilitate trade and expertise exchanges with like-minded leading quantum nations.
During a meeting on September 8, US President Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two countries will strengthen scientific cooperation, including space exploration, biotechnology and quantum computing.
However, many technology experts say that the $730 million funding may not be enough for India's National Quantum Mission program, which includes not only quantum computing but also quantum communications, quantum sensing and measurement, and quantum materials and devices.
In fact, India is far behind China in quantum communications research, as China is the country that is investing heavily in this field.