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Full Version: Huge step forward in quantum computing was just announced: 1st-ever quantum circuit
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https://www.sciencealert.com/a-huge-step...um-circuit

INTRO: Australian scientists have created the world's first-ever quantum computer circuit – one that contains all the essential components found on a classical computer chip but at the quantum scale.

The landmark discovery, published in Nature today, was nine years in the making. "This is the most exciting discovery of my career," senior author and quantum physicist Michelle Simmons, founder of Silicon Quantum Computing and director of the Center of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at UNSW told ScienceAlert.

Not only did Simmons and her team create what's essentially a functional quantum processor, they also successfully tested it by modeling a small molecule in which each atom has multiple quantum states – something a traditional computer would struggle to achieve.

This suggests we're now a step closer to finally using quantum processing power to understand more about the world around us, even at the tiniest scale... (MORE - details)
A very impressive 'cultural' feat. As a viable pathway towards mass production of much larger, reliably reproducible QICs, is questionable though. Quote:
"To make this leap in quantum computing, the researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope in an ultra-high vacuum to place quantum dots with sub-nanometer precision."
That is agonizingly slow, pain-staking work. It will require at least as significant an engineering advance to make the endeavor a technological/commercial success.

Amusingly, a radically different approach to quantum computing, based on using not trying to eliminate noise, inherently far more robust, languishes as a backwater:
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/9/15/3029