Jiuzhang: the quantum revolution in the computing world

In the world of quantum computers, one stands out for its incredible performance: the Jiuzhang, created by a group of scientists led by Pan Jianwei, recognized in China as the "father of quantum computing". According to the South China Morning Post, the Jiuzhang can perform artificial intelligence (AI) tasks as much as 180 million times faster than the most advanced traditional supercomputer.

Quantum vs traditional: a battle of speed

Although the United States continues to dominate the TOP500 ranking of global supercomputers, China is gradually building expertise in a promising and revolutionary field: quantum computing. Unlike traditional computing, which relies on bits that can represent either the 0 or 1 state, quantum computing takes advantage of qubits, which can exist in both states simultaneously. This simultaneity, known as superposition, allows a qubit to represent all possible combinations of states, offering computational speeds that are theoretically much faster than those of traditional computers.

Extraordinary performance: the example of Jiuzhang

Jiuzhang gained notoriety in 2020 when Jianwei's team managed to sample the Gaussian boson in just 200 seconds, a task that would take a traditional supercomputer about 2.5 billion years to complete. Jianwei and his team set out to harness the power of quantum computers to tackle real-world problems, testing Jiuzhang with two algorithms commonly used in AI: random search and simulated annealing. With a total of 200,000 samples, it would have taken a traditional supercomputer five years to analyze everything. Jiuzhang, on the other hand, completed the job in less than a second, making it 180 million times faster than the fastest traditional supercomputer.

The benefits of using Jiuzhang

Quantum computers, such as those developed in the United States, tend to be susceptible to errors due to environmental interference on the subatomic particles used in the calculation, which is why they operate in isolation and at extremely low temperatures. However, Jiuzhang overcomes these difficulties by using light as the computing medium, thus avoiding the need for cryogenic temperatures. The Jianwei team's research showed that despite the potential susceptibility to errors, quantum computers like Jiuzhang offer significant advantages over traditional computers. These advantages could find application in different domains such as data mining, bioinformatics, network analysis and chemical modeling. The results of this groundbreaking research were recently published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.