For a few years now, different organizations and private companies have been announcing "Quantum supremacy", the ability for a quantum processor to do a calculation faster than a regular supercomputer would. The latest claimant to this record is the Zuchongzhi-3, a superconducting quantum computing prototype made of 105 qubits – the quantum equivalent of regular computer bits.
As a comparison, what is now the second most powerful supercomputer, Frontier, would take almost 6 billion years to do what Zuchongzhi-3 can do in a few minutes, the Chinese researchers said. The most powerful supercomputer, El Capitan, only went online recently, so if it can shave time off that is yet to be seen.
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