Google Teams With D-Wave in Massive Quantum Computing Leap, Cracking Simulation Problem

Google and D-Wave Systems say they’ve achieved a new milestone in the world of quantum computing.

In a press release, D-Wave says its quantum device has far outpaced a classical computer in a direct competition to complete a difficult computational problem.

The device successfully modeled the behavior of a spinning two-dimensional “quantum magnet,” and was able to complete the simulation at breakneck speed.

“…In collaboration with scientists at Google, demonstrating a computational performance advantage, increasing with both simulation size and problem hardness, to over 3 million times that of corresponding classical methods.

Notably, this work was achieved on a practical application with real-world implications, simulating the topological phenomena behind the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.”

Quantum devices leverage the unique properties of quantum physics to perform certain calculations at revolutionary speeds.

D-Wave says its study proves that quantum computers can more efficiently and effectively tackle tough simulations.

“What we see is a huge benefit in absolute terms, with the scaling advantage in temperature and size that we would hope for.”

Quantum computing threatens to break the cryptographic algorithms that keep the internet and crypto assets secure. Ripple CTO Davis Schwartz, says he believes developers have about eight years to develop quantum-proof methods to keep digital infrastructures secure.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Yurchanka Siarhei