People can now freely experience the "superpower" of quantum computing over the Internet. Nearly 600 physical qubits are available on the "Quafu" large-scale quantum cloud computing cluster, which provides high-level quantum computing services worldwide to accelerate the application of quantum computing. At the Achievements Release Session at the opening ceremony of the 2024 ZGC Forum Annual Conference on April 25, the large-scale quantum cloud computing cluster was listed as one of the top ten major achievements.

2024 Zhongguancun Forum Frontier Technology and Future Industry Exhibition displays large-scale quantum cloud computing power cluster

Bit is the basic logical unit of a classical computer. It has two states: "on" and "off", which are commonly defined as 0 and 1 respectively. "There is a simple multiplicative relationship between the storage and processing capabilities of classical computers and the number of bits. If we want to double the computing power, we roughly need to double the number of bits." Executive President of the BAQIS Chang Kai said. At present, the technological process of classical processors based on silicon integrated circuits has gradually approached the atomic scale, and the inevitable quantum effects will cause its development to encounter huge physical obstacle. In addition, the increase in the computing power of classical computers has also been accompanied by a sharp increase in power consumption. Currently, the world's largest supercomputer comsumes almost the whole power generated by a small thermal power plant.

Many problems in our real world are extremely complicated. "For example, if there are 10 people in a line, there are more than 3 million ways to arrange them. What if there are 100 or 1,000 people? " Chang Kai said that to meet the needs of huge data storage and processing, we need to develop quantum computers. Quantum computers use qubits as the basic logical unit. Since the quantum states can be in a superposition state of 0 and 1, and many qubits can be entangled together, it results in an exponentially increased computing space, thus potentially exponentially increased information processing power - the computing space of 50 qubits exceeds 1000 trillion, which is more or less equivalent to the power of the world's most powerful supercomputer; when it comes to 300 qubits, it reaches the order of 10⁹⁰, more than the sum of all the atoms in the universe. "For quantum computers, if we want to double the computing power, we only need to add one qubit. "

At the 2023 ZGC Forum, the quantum computing cloud platform "Quafu" made its debut. Since its launch, the platform has performed more than 3 million tasks. One year later, the capabilities of the platform have been significantly upgraded. New generation quantum computing processors with improved architecture, high-density measurement & control wirings and electronic systems... These technologies are all completed by teams from the BAQIS, the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Tsinghua University. Chang Kai introduced that the second-generation "Quafu" released this time has realized a large scale quantum cloud computing cluster. Five "new" quantum computing systems with a scale of more than 100 bits are deployed, and the average two qubit gate fidelity exceeds 97%. The highest one reaches 99%, and the comprehensive indicators enter the first echelon in the world.

"Baihua", "Yunmeng ", "Haituo "... The 100-scale quantum computing systems of the platform are all named after the peaks in and around Beijing. Currently, the cluster has more than 590 available physical qubits and is open accessed for users around the world for free. Quantum cloud is the key for quantum computation to move from laboratories to applications, and has important strategic significance for the development of quantum computing algorithms, applications exploration, and industrial ecological cultivation. In the future, benefit from its powerful computing capability, quantum computers are expected to make great strides in the fields such as biopharmaceuticals and new material research and development.