The Most Important Race in Tech
The difference between classical and quantum computers can be represented by Google’s claim to quantum supremacy in 2019. To achieve this claim of quantum supremacy, one of Google’s 53 qubit quantum computers (called ‘Sycamore’) was able to do a calculation in just over 3 minutes when it would have taken even the world’s most powerful classical computer over 10,000 years to process the same calculation. There has been some dispute over this claim by rival company IBM who says that the calculation would have taken a matter of days and not the tens of thousands of years that Google claimed. But the main idea behind this computing transformation persists. Quantum tech aims to be faster, more efficient, and revolutionary in ways its classical counterparts never will be. And it’s able to do this because of one advantage in particular.

When classical computers store their information it’s either as a 1 or a 0. These 1’s and 0’s we call ‘bits’. But quantum computers can leverage a property known as superposition where their quantum bits (‘qubits’) can be a 1, a 0, both a 1 and a 0 at the same time, or some combination of both numbers. By taking advantage of the quantum trait of superposition these new computers can make great computational strides where classical technology just isn’t enough. The fact that subatomic particles like electrons exist in a superposition of states makes it difficult for classical computers to simulate them. This ability to simulate particles and their quantum properties is how quantum computers succeed where classical computers fail.

A visualization of classical computer bits and the larger range of qubits. Image by Pranith Hengavalli.

Yet despite their computational prowess and their promises for the future, quantum computers are really quite fickle machines. Their chips function only at temperatures close to absolute zero (−459.67 °F or −273.15 °C). The focus for qubits has been, up until now, using small superconducting loops. The oscillations of these loops means that they are systems with 2 possible quantum states, making them a viable basis for a qubit. But attention has recently turned to trapped-ion systems, a technology that formed the basis of quantum circuits before superconducting loops were in use.

Trapped-ion systems use the energy level of ions trapped in electric fields to form the computer’s qubits. The quantum states of the ions last longer than their superconducting counterparts. And where superconducting qubits only interact with other nearby qubits, the ions’ interactions are widespread and allow them to run certain complex calculations more easily. They are, however, slower at these interactions, something which may hurt their ability to correct realtime errors.

Within the world of quantum computing there is a race between materials as much as there is a race between countries.
['Ella Alderson']
['Technology', 'Science', 'Tech', 'Politics', 'Future']