Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The esoteric world of quantum computing is all aquiver following a robust blog post from IBM essentially rubbishing claims from Google that it has achieved "quantum supremacy".
The post notes that quantum computing is approaching the limits of classical simulation and there are big questions as to how to evaluate and benchmark system performance. Quantum supremacy is the moment quantum machines begin to do things classical computers cannot.
But Big Blue dismissed Google's most recent claims for its 53-qubit processor revealed in a leaked document last month.
IBM notes: "In the preprint, it is argued that their device reached 'quantum supremacy' and that 'a state-of-the-art supercomputer would require approximately 10,000 years to perform the equivalent task'. "We argue that an ideal simulation of the same task can be performed on a classical system in 2.5 days and with far greater fidelity. This is in fact a conservative, worst-case estimate, and we expect that with additional refinements, the classical cost of the simulation can be further reduced."
Previously:
IBM and Google’s Race for Quantum Computing Takes a Mysterious Turn
Google Quantum Processor Reportedly Achieves Quantum Supremacy
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday October 24 2019, @03:34AM
That's where it gets funny. After a day or so of setup you run the program, it will very quickly reply "It might be 5". So you try 5/2 ?=2 to check the result. DOH!
Run it again and it answers "would you believe 4?". So you try that, then pop the corks, launch the fireworks, cry Hazzah and let slip the weasels of marketing!
I'm not kidding all that much. Output from a quantum computer will be subject to error and will have to be checked using a conventional computer.
Quantum computing may very well be a thing one day, but compared to the timeline starting with Babbage being born to the modern PC, it's pre-difference engine right now, marketing hype notwithstanding.