Google has announced its latest quantum chip, Willow, which it says can solve a problem that would take the world's second-fastest supercomputer, Frontier, 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10 septillion) years in less than five minutes. 10 septillion years is older than the age of the universe.
The 105-qubit Willow is capable of exponentially reducing errors when using more qubits, solving a major challenge in quantum error correction. Willow is the next step in Google's journey to build a useful large-scale quantum computer. It's a significant improvement over its first quantum chip, Sycamore, which had 53 qubits.
Google is optimistic that the Willow chip could help achieve useful computations that rival those of classical computers. Google is also inviting researchers, engineers, and developers to join the effort by using the open-source software it has developed.