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Google unveils 'mind-boggling' quantum computing chip

It solves in five minutes a problem computers now would need 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to work out, Google says.

However experts say Willow is, for now, a largely experimental device, meaning a quantum computer powerful enough to solve a wide range of real-world problems is still years - and billions of dollars - away. But Google researchers say they have reversed this and managed to engineer and program the new chip so the error rate fell across the whole system as the number of qubits increased. Eventually quantum computers would help with a range of tasks including "logistics problems such as cargo freight distribution on aircraft or routing of telecoms signals or stored energy throughout the national grid", he said.

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