Google Willow is a next-generation quantum processor that the search giant has just unveiled. And it promises a lot in key factors like performance and bug fixes to reach the ambitious end goal: pave the way to a useful large-scale quantum computer.

Quantum computing is “the next frontier” and large companies are in a full race to position themselves in technology that will change our world in the coming decades. And we talk about “decades” because there is still a lot of time left to solve the problems associated with this architecture, that compared to a traditional computing architecture that can take the values ​​”1″ or “0”, the information is stored in qubits (quantum bits) that can simultaneously take on both values ​​(superposition) and thus be able to perform any computational task exponentially faster than current systems.

Google Willow, the next step

“Willow chip is a big step on a journey that started more than 10 years ago”describes the founder and director of Google Quantum AI Hartmut Neven in the announcement of the research, which he signs along with other engineers of the company in the journal Nature. The most interesting thing described is the new chip 105 qubits he was able to complete a benchmark task in about five minutes that would have taken the Frontier supercomputer, one of the fastest in the world, much longer to complete.

The scientist talks about the vast differences between them. It is a “a staggering number that exceeds known time scales in physics and greatly exceeds the age of the universe”Neven says, pointing out that they got a call “quantum dominance”. The concept that defines when quantum computers are able to solve a computational task that cannot be done with current computers, or the time to do so, is insane. Tech giants have been vying for this concept in a media battle for years.

Google researchers also point out chip error correction and the ability to scale them down exponentially when using more qubits. “Today in Nature we publish results showing that the more qubits we use in Willow, the more we reduce errors and the more quantum the system becomes”says the director of Google Quantum AI.

The new Willow chip was created at Google’s new Santa Barbara manufacturing facility, which was built from the ground up to make quantum chips. Google has optimized several key sections, including chip architecture, manufacturing, gate development, calibration and more, to achieve better performance and to be able to solve fundamental problems that affect the technology, such as interference factors that affect the controllability and reliability of qubits, such as defects temperature, electromagnetism and the material used.

“It’s Exciting”not just for the current moment, but for “where are we going”summarized the researchers when announcing this new step in quantum computing.