QUANTUM -CHIP GETS- QUEUING : PRECIS

'' Quantum chip allows us to understand nature much better, and then unlock its secrets to build technologies that make life more pleasant for all of us.''

Some members of the team working on Willow have just received the Nobel Prize for the original research into ''superconducting qubits ''.

According to IBM, a quantum bit [ or qubit ] is the basic unit of information used to encode data on quantum computing, and can be best understood as the quantum equivalent of the 'bit', used by classical computers to encode information in binary.

In contrast to a traditional bit [ either 0 or 1 ], a qubit is capable of existing in a superposition of both states [ both 0 and 1 ] simultaneously, allowing for vastly more complex data representation.

The Willow chip has 105 qubits. Microsoft's quantum effort has 8 qubits, but uses a different approach.  But the real race is to get to 1 million qubits for a '' utility scale machine '' that can do quantum chemistry, drug design without error.

If you want to wrap your head around what it is capable of, imagine trying to find a tennis ball in one of a thousand closed drawers.

A classical computer opens each one in order. A quantum computer opens all of them at the same time.

Or similarly, instead of having to need a hundred keys to open a hundred doors in normal computing, quantum enables you to open all one hundred, with one key, instantly.

These machines will not be for everyone. They will not shrink down into phones or AI glasses or laptops.

But the point is that the power of these computers grows exponentially, and everyone is getting in on the act.

According to Sir Peter Knight, Chair at the U.K.'s National Quantum Technology Programme Strategy Advisory Board, Willow has broken new ground.

'' All the machines are really still at the toy model stage, they make mistakes.

They need error correction.

Willow was the first to demonstrate that you could do error correction, through repeated rounds of repairs, which improves,'' he told the BBC.