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Microsoft has invented a new state of matter separate to solids, liquids and gases in a scientific breakthrough the technology giant says could create the world’s most powerful computer.
The company unveiled a quantum computer chip on Wednesday that generates new types of particles existing in a “topological” state.
Topological states have previously only existed in theory and require a delicate combination of magnetic fields, new materials and temperatures near absolute-zero to bring about. The state does not occur naturally and its existence has only been made possible through advances in quantum physics.
Microsoft said it had harnessed this new state to create new “Majorana” particles that were crucial to developing quantum computers several times more powerful than today’s most capable machines.
The company’s quantum chip uses “topoconductors” made of materials that it has fabricated atom-by-atom, in contrast to the silicon semiconductors that power the world’s smartphones and laptops.
Massive leaps in computer performance
The company said the new type of chip would pave the way for quantum computers that promise massive leaps in performance and new ways of simulating the world. The machines could lead to huge advances in chemistry and physics, creating self-healing concrete, battery breakthroughs and breaking down plastics.
Microsoft said its breakthrough meant it would be able to tackle “meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades”.
Google said last year that its latest quantum machine took just five minutes to solve problems that would be impossible for the world’s fastest computers.
Companies are racing to develop quantum computers, which have long been sought by researchers but have proven difficult to master due to the inherent instability of quantum states.
The technology is seen as a national security issue because the machines could break today’s encryption systems used to protect banks and covert messages.
Microsoft said its quantum chip had eight qubits – the building blocks of quantum computing – but that it now had a path to developing a chip with 1m qubits.
“All the world’s current computers operating together can’t do what a one-million-qubit quantum computer will be able to do,” the company said.
Because qubits can operate in multiple states at once, stringing them together creates exponential increases in computing power that can quickly outpace today’s machines with billions of traditional computing bits.
Microsoft has taken an unconventional approach to quantum computing that many physicists believed would not work, but which could now lead to rapid progress because its technology is potentially less prone to failure as its computers get more powerful.