Quantum computers: Google points the way towards scalable fault-tolerant quantum devices
By Daphne Leprince-Ringuet | July 20, 2021 -- 15:38 GMT (08:38 PDT) | Topic: Quantum Computing
Google's researchers have demonstrated that, subject to certain conditions, error correction works on the company's Sycamore quantum processor and can even scale exponentially, in what is yet another step towards building a fault-tolerant quantum computer.
The breakthrough is likely to catch the attention of scientists working on quantum error correction, a field that is concerned not with qubit counts but rather with qubit quality.
While increasing the number of qubits supported by quantum computers is often presented as the key factor in unlocking the unprecedented compute power of quantum technologies, equally as important is ensuring that those qubits behave in a way that allows for reliable, error-free results.
