谷歌量子電腦取得重大技術飛躍（2/2）

Recently the New York Times reported the following:

Google’s Quantum Computer Makes a Big Technical Leap (2/2)

Designed to accelerate advances in medicine and other fields, the tech giant’s quantum algorithm runs 13,000 times as fast as software written for a traditional supercomputer.

By Cade Metz - Reporting from Goleta, Calif.

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With two other researchers at Berkeley in the mid-1980s, John M. Martinis and John Clarke, Dr. Devoret showed that the counterintuitive properties of quantum mechanics were not limited to subatomic particles. They also appeared in electrical circuits that could be used to build computer chips.

“We showed for the first time that you could build atoms out of electrical circuits,” Dr. Devoret said.

The discovery laid the foundation for the “superconducting qubits” that Google, IBM and many other companies use to power their quantum computers. This involves cooling certain metals to extremely low temperatures so they exhibit the same strange behavior as subatomic particles.

Today’s quantum computers still make too many mistakes. But thanks to recent advances in error correction — a way of reducing mistakes — many scientists now believe the technology can live up to its promise by around the end of the decade.

Google announced last year that it had built a quantum computer that needed less than five minutes to perform a particularly complex mathematical calculation in a test designed to gauge the progress of the technology. One of the world’s most powerful non-quantum supercomputers would not have been able to complete it in 10 septillion years, a length of time that exceeds the age of the known universe by billions of trillions of years.

This moment of “quantum supremacy” showed that the technology was beginning to push beyond the powers of classical computers. But the calculation performed by Google’s machine, based on a chip called Willow, had no practical use.

Google and its many rivals are still working toward the moment when a quantum computer can surpass what is possible with a classical computer as it performs important tasks in fields like chemistry and artificial intelligence.

“For the promise of quantum computers to be unlocked, we need to produce a new drug that we only know about because of quantum computers,” Dr. Narang of U.C.L.A. said. “Then you can say that all the investment was worthwhile.”

Google’s new algorithm is a step in that direction. In another paper published on Wednesday on the research site arXiv, the company showed that its algorithm could help improve what is called nuclear magnetic resonance, or N.M.R., which is a technique used to understand the structure of tiny molecules and how they interact with one another.

N.M.R. is a vital part of effort to develop new medicines for fighting disease and new materials for building everything from cars to buildings. It can help understand Alzheimer’s disease or drive the creation of entirely new metals, said Ashok Ajoy, an assistant professor of chemistry at Berkeley who specializes in N.M.R. and worked with Google’s researchers on the new paper.

“This illustrates the power of a quantum computer,” he said. “It is still early days. But the prospects are exciting.”

Translation

谷歌量子電腦取得重大技術飛躍（2/2）

這家科技巨頭的量子演算法旨在加速醫學及其他領域的進步，其運行速度比傳統超級電腦的軟體快13,000倍。

（繼續）

在1980年代中期，Devoret博士與柏克萊的另外兩位研究人員John M. Martinis和John Clarke合作，證明量子力學的反直覺特性並非僅限於亞原子粒子，它們也出現在可用於構建電腦晶片的電路中。

Devoret博士說: 「我們首次證明，可以用電路建構原子」。

這項發現為Google、IBM和許多其他公司用於驅動其量子電腦的「超導量子位元」奠定了基礎。這涉及到將某些金屬冷卻到極低的溫度，使它們表現出與亞原子粒子相同的奇異行為。

如今的量子電腦仍然會犯太多錯誤。但由於糾錯技術（一種減少錯誤的方法）的最新進展，許多科學家現在相信，這項技術預計在本十年末左右實現其預期目標。

谷歌去年宣布，他們製造了一台量子計算機，在一項旨在評估該技術進展的測試中，它僅用不到五分鐘就完成了一項極其複雜的數學計算。世界上當今其中一個最強大的非量子超級電腦，即使花費十億億年也無法完成這項計算，而十萬億億年的時間比已知宇宙的年齡還要長數十億億年。

這「量子霸權」的時刻表明，這項技術正開始超越經典電腦的能力。但谷歌這台使用名為Willow晶片的機器所進行的計算並沒有實際用途。

谷歌及其眾多競爭對手仍在努力，期盼量子計算機能夠超越傳統計算機，在化學和人工智能等領域執行重要任務。

加州大學洛杉磯分校的Narang博士說道:“要真正釋放量子計算機的潛力，我們需要研發出一種僅靠量子計算機才能發現的新藥” ;“只有這樣，所有的投資才算物有所值。”

谷歌的新演算法正是朝著這個方向邁出的一步。該公司週三在預印本網站arXiv上發表的另一篇論文中指出，其演算法有助於改進核磁共振（NMR）技術。核磁共振是一種用於理解微小分子結構及其相互作用的技術。

柏克萊大學化學助理教授Ashok Ajoy說核磁共振技術對於研發對抗疾病的新藥以及用於製造從汽車到建築物等各種產品的新材料至關重要。它可以幫助理解阿茲海默症，或推動全新金屬的創造。Ashok Ajoy專攻核磁共振（NMR），並與Google的研究人員合作撰寫了這篇新論文。

他說:「這展現了量子電腦的強大力量」;「現在還處於早期階段。但前景令人興奮」。

              So, Google said their quantum computer had successfully run a new algorithm capable of accelerating advances in drug discovery, in the design of new building materials and other fields. Apparently, this new achievement illustrates the potential of a quantum computer and its promising prospects.