Global Courant
China recently launched two cloud platforms designed to enable the general public to make use of its quantum machines.
One is a feature added to the country’s fastest quantum computer, Zuchongzhi 2. The new cloud platform was launched by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) with the support of Anhui-based QuantumCTek and Beijing Zhongke Arclight Quantum Software Technology.
Stone carving at the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, with the inscription ‘Kuafu chasing the sun.’ Photo: Wikipedia
The other was launched by the Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences (BAQIS), a scientific research unit of the Beijing government. It is known as Quafu – pronounced as Kuafu, a mythological Chinese giant who tries to catch the sun by running after it, eventually dies of dehydration and turns into a mountain ranger. For Chinese people, his story is one of courage and self-sacrifice.
Chinese scientists say these new cloud platforms could help researchers and students experience the computing power of quantum computers while advancing their own scientific research.
Fan Heng, a researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said the Quafu cloud system is connected to a 136-qubit quantum computer based on the BAQIS which is similar to the Zuchongzhi 2 but with higher computational power.
Heng said the system has also been linked to two other 18- and 10-qubit quantum computers in the lab of BAQIS’s Huairou Research Department in Beijing. He said an 18-qubit quantum machine is sometimes preferable to those with higher computational power, which he says can be more error-prone.
“China had missed the golden period of development in the era of traditional computers, but quantum computers give us new opportunities,” said Fan. “The development of quantum cloud platforms is a good starting point for China to build its quantum industry.”
The BAQIS said that one day Quafu will be able to compete with foreign counterparts. Currently, the main quantum cloud service providers Involving IBM Q Experience, Google Quantum AI, Xanadu Quantum Cloud and Azure Quantum from Microsoft.
Superconducting quantum computers
There are three main types of quantum computers:
electron-based (superconducting), atom-based (cold atom or trapped ion), and photon-based
In December 2020, a USTC research team led by scientist Pan Jianwei launched Jiuzhang, a photon-based quantum computer that can operate at room temperature. It is said to be faster than Google’s Sycamore, a superconducting quantum computer that must operate at a temperature close to absolute zero.
Pan Jianwei. Photo: CCTV
In May 2021, Pan and his team launched the 66-qubit Zuchongzhi 2, which also uses superconducting chips. While Zuchongzhi 2 is the fastest quantum computer in China, the world’s fastest is the 433-qubit Osprey released by IBM last November.
Zhu Xiaobo, a professor at USTC, said on May 31 that his research team has improved the Zuchongzhi 2 by adding control interfaces of 110 linked qubits to a newly launched cloud system, allowing users to manipulate up to 176 qubits.
Zhu said the cloud platform aims to reach the advanced global level in key design indicators such as connectivity, reliability and down time.
The Chinese public can use the cloud platform to experience simple quantum computer programming and imaging experiments, said Peng Chengzhi, executive vice director of the project and president of QuantumCTek. The platform will be connected to more quantum computers in the future, he said.
About 40% of technology experts believe electron-based quantum computers will have the best chance of success in the next decade, while 35% believe they will be atom-based and 26% photon-based, according to a survey. questionnaire performed by Arthur D Little, a Brussels-based management consultancy.
Quantum sanctions
Last October, the Biden administration announced its decision to block the export of quantum computer components and software to China.
In November 2021, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed sanctions 28 organizations from China, Russia, Pakistan, Japan and Singapore to prevent US technologies from being diverted to China and Russia for military use.
Some Chinese media said China cannot produce traditional high-end semiconductors due to US sanctions, but it can make superconducting chips. They said China can surpass the West in quantum computing, just like “catching up with others in a curve” in auto racing.
On February 1, China’s Origin Quantum Computing Technology said it had provided a 24-qubit quantum computer – known as Benyuan Wuyuan. It reportedly uses self-developed superconducting chip technology.
Origin Quantum Computing Technology Co launched a 24-qubit quantum computer called Benyuan Wuyuan in 2021. Photo: originqc.com.cn
However, some Chinese commentators think it will be difficult for China to get around the US curbs.
A Hunan-based IT columnist say in an article that China has not yet made major breakthroughs in the development of its indigenous people electron beam lithographyan essential tool for making superconducting chips.
He says that even if China can produce superconducting chips, it will still need to import foreign liquid-helium dilution refrigerators to keep its chips at temperatures of absolute zero or below. He says China’s dilution refrigerators are not up to the standard of foreign refrigerators.
Bluefors Oy in Finland, Oxford Instruments NanoScience in the UK and JanisULT in the US are the top three suppliers of dilution refrigerators with a combined global market share of 70%, media reported.
Read: China rushes into quantum computing race
Read: Rising specter of a quantum computing arms race
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
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