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New Breakthrough Brings Quantum Computing One Big Step Closer To

Bonisiwe Shabane
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new breakthrough brings quantum computing one big step closer to

At the heart of today’s computing future lies a new kind of chip—one that could make quantum computing practical, powerful, and scalable. Scientists have been chasing this dream for decades, but one of the biggest hurdles has been control. How can you manage millions of fragile quantum bits, or qubits, without ruining the very information they carry? A new scientific breakthrough offers a bold answer. Researchers have developed a cryogenic control system—electronic circuits that operate just above absolute zero—that works side by side with spin qubits on a silicon chip. This advancement brings quantum computing one big step closer to solving real-world problems.

Spin qubits use the magnetic direction of a single electron to store data. They are one of the most promising types of qubits because they can be built using the same CMOS technology that powers your phone and laptop. That means existing manufacturing methods, already good at making billions of transistors, could also produce millions of qubits. In theory, this makes spin qubits easier and cheaper to scale than other quantum systems. Their small size is another advantage. Each spin qubit fits into a space smaller than a micron, allowing engineers to pack millions onto one chip.

But there’s a big catch. Each qubit requires several control lines to operate. Connecting millions of qubits to control systems quickly becomes unmanageable using current room-temperature setups. To fix this, scientists looked at placing the control electronics much closer to the qubits—at cryogenic temperatures near absolute zero. But this idea brought a new challenge: Would the electronics create heat or noise that would destroy the fragile quantum states? The new quantum computing algorithm, called "Quantum Echoes," is the first that can be independently verified by running it on another quantum computer.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Google scientists have created a new algorithm that can solve problems on a quantum processor 13,000 times faster than the world's fastest supercomputers. They say it brings us one step closer to using quantum computers in drug discovery, materials science and many other scientific applications. The researchers say the new algorithm, dubbed Quantum Echoes, is a breakthrough because it achieves quantum advantage while being the first such algorithm that can be verified independently by running it on another quantum... The Quantum Echoes algorithm achieved its superfast result in a benchmarking experiment run on Google's Willow quantum processing unit (QPU).

The researchers outlined how the algorithm works in a new study published Oct. 22 in the journal Nature. Quantum computers will need large numbers of qubits to tackle challenging problems in physics, chemistry, and beyond. Unlike classical bits, qubits can exist in two states at once -- a phenomenon called superposition. This quirk of quantum physics gives quantum computers the potential to perform certain complex calculations better than their classical counterparts, but it also means the qubits are fragile. To compensate, researchers are building quantum computers with extra, redundant qubits to correct any errors.

That is why robust quantum computers will require hundreds of thousands of qubits. Now, in a step toward this vision, Caltech physicists have created the largest qubit array ever assembled: 6,100 neutral-atom qubits trapped in a grid by lasers. Previous arrays of this kind contained only hundreds of qubits. This milestone comes amid a rapidly growing race to scale up quantum computers. There are several approaches in development, including those based on superconducting circuits, trapped ions, and neutral atoms, as used in the new study. "This is an exciting moment for neutral-atom quantum computing," says Manuel Endres, professor of physics at Caltech.

"We can now see a pathway to large error-corrected quantum computers. The building blocks are in place." Endres is the principal investigator of the research published on September 24 in Nature. Three Caltech graduate students led the study: Hannah Manetsch, Gyohei Nomura, and Elie Bataille. The team used optical tweezers -- highly focused laser beams -- to trap thousands of individual cesium atoms in a grid. To build the array of atoms, the researchers split a laser beam into 12,000 tweezers, which together held 6,100 atoms in a vacuum chamber. "On the screen, we can actually see each qubit as a pinpoint of light," Manetsch says.

"It's a striking image of quantum hardware at a large scale." Comparison of zero-level distillation (right) and logical-level distillation (left). Credit: PRX Quantum (2025). DOI: 10.1103/thxx-njr6 For decades, the idea of quantum computing has sat tantalizingly on the horizon—promising a future where calculations that might take today’s supercomputers centuries could be solved in seconds. It’s a vision powered not by science fiction, but by the eerie principles of quantum mechanics: particles that can exist in multiple states at once, and become mysteriously linked across space.

But there’s always been a catch. Quantum computers are notoriously fragile. A whisper of heat, a stray photon, even cosmic background noise can throw them into chaos. Now, researchers at the University of Osaka may have solved one of the thorniest obstacles on the road to practical quantum machines—with a little bit of what they call “magic.” Published in PRX Quantum, the study introduces a new, radically efficient technique for preparing “magic states”—a foundational requirement for error-resistant quantum computation. Their approach could slash resource demands by dozens of times, removing a major bottleneck in building scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems.

It’s a quiet revolution, and it might just reshape the future of computation. Algorithm performed task beyond capability of classical computers, although experts say real-world application still years away Google has claimed a breakthrough in quantum computing after developing an algorithm that performed a task beyond the capabilities of conventional computers. The algorithm, a set of instructions guiding the operation of a quantum computer, was able to compute the structure of a molecule – which paves the way for major discoveries in areas such as... Google acknowledged, however, that real-world use of quantum computers remained years away. “This is the first time in history that any quantum computer has successfully run a verifiable algorithm that surpasses the ability of supercomputers,” Google said in a blogpost.

“This repeatable, beyond-classical computation is the basis for scalable verification, bringing quantum computers closer to becoming tools for practical applications.” Professor, Quantum Nanosystems, UNSW Sydney Andrea Morello receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Department of Defence, and the US Army Research Office. UNSW Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. Quantum entanglement — once dismissed by Albert Einstein as “spooky action at a distance” — has long captured the public imagination and puzzled even seasoned scientists. But for today’s quantum practitioners, the reality is rather more mundane: entanglement is a kind of connection between particles that is the quintessential feature of quantum computers.

By blending digital control with analog simulations, scientists have created a powerful new quantum simulator that pushes beyond traditional limitations. This hybrid system allows precise manipulation of quantum states while naturally modeling real-world physics, enabling breakthroughs in fields like magnetism, superconductors, and even astrophysics. Physicists working in Google’s laboratory have developed a new type of digital-analog quantum simulator, capable of studying complex physical processes with unprecedented precision and adaptability. Two researchers from PSI’s Center for Scientific Computing, Theory, and Data played a crucial role in this breakthrough. Consider the simple act of pouring cold milk into hot coffee — how does it spread and mix? Even the most advanced supercomputers struggle to model this process with high accuracy because the underlying quantum mechanics are incredibly complex.

In 1982, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman proposed an alternative: instead of using classical computers, why not build quantum computers that can directly simulate quantum physical processes? Now, with rapid advancements in quantum computing, Feynman’s vision is closer than ever to becoming reality. Together with researchers from Google and universities in five countries, Andreas Läuchli and Andreas Elben, two theoretical physicists at PSI, have built and successfully tested a new type of digital-analog quantum simulator. This represents a milestone because their simulator calculates physical processes not only with unprecedented precision; their concept is also particularly flexible, meaning that it can be applied to many different problems – from solid-state... Their findings were published today in the renowned scientific journal Nature. Physicists have brought the well-known thought experiment of Schrödinger's cat to life in a breakthrough that could help weed out errors in future quantum computers.

The team from Australia has demonstrated that an atom of antimony can be used to store data for use in quantum computations in such a way that it is better protected from errors than... The impressive step brings us one step closer to realizing error detection and correction in quantum systems—a major obstacle to producing practical quantum computers. Quantum computers rely on a quirk of physics in which a system can exist in a "superposition" of multiple states at once. This allows a quantum computer to explore multiple possibilities at the same time, radically speeding up processing times. First proposed in 1935 by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, "Schrödinger's cat" was designed to highlight the physicist's concerns with one interpretation of quantum mechanics—the then relatively new theory that explains how matter behaves...

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The researchers outlined how the algorithm works in a new study published Oct. 22 in the journal Nature. Quantum computers will need large numbers of qubits to tackle challenging problems in physics, chemistry, and beyond. Unlike classical bits, qubits can exist in two states at once -- a phenomenon called superposition. This quirk of quantum physics gives quantum computers the potential to perfor...