China's Baidu Reveals Its First Quantum Computer, 'Qianshi'

Chinese search engine giant Baidu revealed its first quantum computer on Thursday and is ready to make it available to external users, joining the global race to apply the technology to practical uses. Reuters reports: The Baidu-developed quantum computer, dubbed "Qianshi," has a 10-quantum-bit (qubit) processor, Baidu said in a statement. The Beijing-based company has also developed a 36-qubit quantum chip, it said. Governments and companies around the world for years have touted the potential of quantum computing, a form of high-speed calculation at extraordinarily cold temperatures that will bring computers to unprecedented processing speeds. However, current real-world applications in the field are still very basic and limited to a small group of early clients.

10 qubits

[backslashdot]

Wow they can factorize the number 5 with that. Which is luckily a prime number with no factors.

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[CODiNE]

A bit higher than that I hope. Is that sarcasm or they can't factor up to 1,024 for some reason?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Generally under the best circumstances, ignoring the huge error rate of current quantum computers, they need a little over 2x qubits per factor bits.

So 10 qubits can factor a 3.5 bit integer under perfect conditions.

Of course technically it can factor bigger numbers but you need storage and it depends on how much time you have.

Quantum computing is really weird. We keep getting stories of 500+ qubit machines but then never hear anything about them again. Either they had such high errors rates as to be useles

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[gTsiros]

In contrast with some of the prime numbers that have factors?

o_O

Can it play Doom?

[thesjaakspoiler]

Nah, didn't think so.
Even my Nokia 3310 could play Doom.

Not alone then

[danda]

Great, at least the west isn't alone in wasting money, talent, resources on the quantum computing boondoggle.

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[vbdasc]

it isn't a waste if someone is willing to buy it.

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[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

It's probably a USB stick with the word "quantum" printed on it (made with authentic second hand FLASH memory).

I was thinking, "If it's really a quantum computer, does that mean it's really small and would get lost in the office carpet if it was swept off the inventor's desktop by their curious cat?"

'current real-world applications'

[Fly Swatter]

Haha now we know they are lying. There are no current real-world applications unless you count fund raising.

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[clickclickdrone]

I work in a bank. We use Quantum computing for certain daily task that suits it particularly well. It reduced the processing time from 2 hours down to a few minutes.