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Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

(blog.google)
429 points AbhishekParmar | 7 comments | 22 Oct 25 15:16 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
1. kantbtrue ◴[22 Oct 25 15:52 UTC] No.45671020[source]▶
“13,000× faster” sounds huge, but I wonder what it’s being compared to. Quantum speedups are always tricky to measure
replies(1): >>45671059 #
2. jonathanstrange ◴[22 Oct 25 15:55 UTC] No.45671059[source]▶
The article states: “...13,000 times faster on Willow than the best classical algorithm on one of the world’s fastest supercomputers...”

I agree it's not very precise without knowing which of the world's fastest supercomputers they're talking about, but there was no need to leave out this tidbit.

replies(2): >>45671153 #>>45674702 #
3. jasonthorsness ◴[22 Oct 25 16:01 UTC] No.45671153[source]▶
The paper talks only about the Frontier supercomputer which is #2 on Top500. But I think it was an analysis rather than them actually running it.
replies(1): >>45671211 #
4. jonathanstrange ◴[22 Oct 25 16:04 UTC] No.45671211{3}[source]▶
I was being sarcastic because 13,000 times faster is 4 orders of magnitude faster so it doesn't matter to which supercomputer it is compared.
5. nicce ◴[22 Oct 25 20:25 UTC] No.45674702[source]▶
I don’t understand how these papers get accepted
replies(2): >>45675516 #>>45679034 #
6. cannonpalms ◴[22 Oct 25 21:41 UTC] No.45675516{3}[source]▶
The field is nascent. The bar is not static.
7. ◴[23 Oct 25 07:03 UTC] No.45679034{3}[source]▶