The constantly changing nature of Quantum Computing has allowed for another breakthrough with the unveiling of China’s Zuchongzhi-3 Superconducting Quantum Computer, signifying a milestone and placing China at the forefront of the ever-evolving global quantum race.
Developed by The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the Superconducting chip Zuchongzhi-3 is said to be 1 quadrillion times faster than the world’s most powerful and fastest classical supercomputers, Frontier. It directly competes with America’s Tech Giants’ contributions to Quantum Computing in the names of Google’s Willow Chip, Microsoft’s Majorana 1 Chip, IBM 1,121 condor processor, and Amazon’s Ocelot.
China’s Quantum Leap: The Zuchongzhi-3 Unveiling
China’s Zuchongzhi-3, a 105-qubit superconducting quantum processor, is claimed by its researchers to be 1015 faster than the world’s most advanced classical supercomputers. Being a successor to Zuchongzhi-2, it represents a significant upgrade where it features 105 qubits arranged in a 15×7 array with 182 couplers to enhance quantum connectivity.
The researchers explain in their published paper that the unveiling of this superconductor highlights a significant leap in quantum computing. They executed a larger scale random circuit sampling which is reportedly better than Google’s Sycamore, a 54-qubit quantum processor developed by Google AI Quantum, with Zuchongzhi-3 features being an enhanced coherence time, quantum error correction, and an improved gate fidelity which has been a long-standing challenge in the quantum computing field.
The superconducting quantum computer prototype delivers exceptional precision, achieving 99.90% for a single-qubit gate fidelity, 99.62% for two-qubit gate fidelity, and a readout accuracy of 99.18%.
In a striking display of its power, Zuchongzhi-3 completed an 83-qubit, 32-cycle random circuit sampling task, collecting one million samples in mere hundreds of seconds, a feat that would take Frontier, the world’s leading classical supercomputer, an estimated 6.4 billion years to match.
China’s Zuchongzhi-3 also outperforms Google’s SYC-67 and SYC-70 experiments by six orders of magnitude, setting an outstanding standard in quantum computing.
The Competition: How Zuchongzhi-3 Stacks Up Against American Tech Giants’ Culminating Efforts
Since quantum computing remains in its experimental phase, the unveiling of China’s Zuchongzhi-3 has contributed immensely to the development of its application to solve real-life challenges. However, this achievement may have intensified the competition between the U.S. and China, seeing as Zuchongzhi-3 is miles ahead in terms of the processor being faster than Google’s Willow, who formerly held the position.
Below is an analytical table comparing key features and major achievements of the quantum computers we’ve had so far, each contributing to the race towards an eventual real-life application, as well as for commercial use at large.
| Processor | Qubits | TaskTime (Quantum) | Estimated Classical Simulation Time | Major Achievements |
| Zuchongzhi-3 | 105 | Few hundred seconds | 6.4 billion years | Six orders of magnitude beyond Google’s SYC-67 and SYC-70 experiments |
| Google’s Willow | 105 | Under five minutes | 10 septillion years | First to achieve below threshold quantum error correction |
| Google SYC-70 | 70 | Seconds | 47 years | Demonstrated quantum advantage over classical supercomputers |
| Microsoft’s Majorana 1 Chip | 8 | N/A | N/A | Topological qubits for enhanced stability, a path to million-qubit systems |
| Amazon’s Ocelot | 5 | N/A | N/A | Cat qubits for efficient error correction, up to 90% reduction in costs |
| IBM’s Condor | 1121 | N/A | N/A | Largest quantum processor with 1,121 qubits, pushing the limits of scale and yield |
What’s next in the Quantum Race?
The USTC Researchers are looking forward to engaging in research to further advance quantum error correction, explore quantum entanglement, and scale up their quantum system. They are now tasked with improving processor reliability, testing advanced error correction, and making quantum computers practical for real-world applications.
For instance, with their implementation of surface codes with distance codes of 9 and 11, they are testing and refining advanced techniques to build fault-tolerant systems. Also, further research and exploration of quantum entanglement and chemistry opens doors to tackling real-world problems such as cracking complex solutions or cryptography that classical computers can’t handle.
This could then have an impact on industries such as material discovery, cryptography, and even healthcare, as they are industries that still face huge problems due to the inability of classical computers to solve their unique problems.
