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. Controlling 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 by quantum computers in seconds.
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 mid-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, the 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.
Origin Quantum was founded in 2017 with the aim of turning China’s scientific research achievements into practical products, Mr. Zhang said. He said the company spent three years trying to self-supply all the components in its products.
Zhang said quantum computers will only be commercially viable if they reach 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 the US investment restrictions as it has not received any foreign investment. In addition, the company also manufactures superconducting chips for 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 computing will have strategic implications for the global semiconductor supply chain. The successful launch of Huawei's 5G Mate60 Pro smartphone using 7nm semiconductor chips has demonstrated that China is not afraid of foreign technological blockade and containment.
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 or usable qubits, enough to perform various calculations and generate commercial value.
On June 22, the US said it welcomes India's participation in the Quantum Economic Development Consortium to facilitate expertise and trade 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 would 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.