Special Edition

Science News Items. The rest comes later.

1. Baidu, a leading AI company with strong Internet foundation, today announced its first superconducting quantum computer that fully integrates hardware, software, and applications. On top of this, Baidu also introduced the world's first all-platform quantum hardware-software integration solution that provides access to various quantum chips via mobile app, PC, and cloud. Launched at Quantum Create 2022, a quantum developer conference held in Beijing, this new offering paves the way for the long-awaited industrialization of quantum computing. A revolutionary technology that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems beyond the reach of classical computers, quantum computing is expected to bring ground-breaking transformations in fields like artificial intelligence (AI), computational biology, material simulation, and financial technology. However, a significant gap remains between quantum devices and services. "Qian Shi,” Baidu's industry-level superconducting quantum computer incorporates its hardware platform with Baidu's home-grown software stack. On top of this infrastructure are numerous practical quantum applications, such as quantum algorithms used to design new materials for novel lithium batteries or simulate protein folding. Qian Shi offers a stable and substantial quantum computing service to the public with high-fidelity 10 quantum bits (qubits) of power. In addition, Baidu has recently completed the design of a 36-qubit superconducting quantum chip with couplers, which demonstrates promising simulation results across key metrics. (Sources: research.baidu.com, prnewswire.com)