Google thinks it’s close to “quantum supremacy.” Here’s what that really means
Seventy-two may not be a large number, but in quantum computing terms, it’s massive. This week Google unveiled Bristlecone, a new quantum computing chip with 72 quantum bits, or qubits—the fundamental units of computation in a quantum machine. As our qubit counter and timeline show, the previous record holder is a mere 50-qubit processor announced by IBM last year.
