Microsoft recently announced a landmark technological breakthrough, with its newly developed chips expected to be built in quantum computers within a few years, rather than the previously expected decades. The core of this breakthrough lies in the application of the world's first topological conductor, which can create a completely new state of matter, which is neither solid, liquid, nor gaseous. This innovation makes it possible to design quantum systems in a single chip, and the chip size is even smaller than that of the palm of your hand, providing new possibilities for miniaturization and practicality of quantum computing.
This research result by Microsoft has been published in the journal Nature and has attracted widespread attention from the academic community. Paul Stevenson, a physics professor at the University of Surrey, highly appreciated this, and believed that if Microsoft can continue to advance on this research, it will be expected to become an important competitor in the field of quantum computing. However, he also reminded that although this achievement is of great significance, it is necessary to maintain a cautious optimism in the process of technological development.
George Booth, a professor of theoretical physics at King's College London, believes that the study demonstrates impressive technological achievements, but its true value may take longer to fully manifest. Microsoft said topological conductors provide a completely new path to developing quantum systems that can be scaled to one million qubits. Quantum bits are the basic building blocks of quantum computers, similar to 0 and 1 in traditional computers, but their computing power is far beyond that of traditional computers.
Quantum computers have great potential, and they can solve many complex industrial and social problems, such as decomposing microplastics, developing self-healing materials, optimizing supply chain logistics, and even cracking cryptographic codes. Recently, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has listed Microsoft's topological conductors as one of the two main paths to explore quantum computing and plans to develop industrially useful quantum computers by 2033.
Although Microsoft is relatively slow in the field of quantum computing, Professor Booth points out that Microsoft is more focused on long-term goals and is committed to developing a system that is more resistant to noise and interference. Topological qubits developed by Microsoft use a new type of particle called Majorana fermion, which effectively protects information from being lost. However, the complexity of building these qubits is much higher than other competing technologies.
What Microsoft calls Mayorana particles have never been observed or made before. To make it "appear", researchers need to use magnetic fields and superconductors, which also explains why most quantum computing studies tend to adopt other methods. While there are still many challenges to overcome, Professor Booth believes the study takes an important step towards different platforms, with the potential to compete with mature technologies from companies such as Google.
Overall, the topological conductor chip launched by Microsoft provides a new acceleration path for the development of quantum computers and is expected to be released within a few years. The size of this chip is smaller than that of the palm of your hand and can design a brand new quantum system. In the future, quantum computers will have the ability to solve complex social problems, such as optimizing logistics and cracking encryption codes. This breakthrough not only demonstrates Microsoft's ambitions in the field of quantum computing, but also brings new hope to the development of global technology.