Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Chapter 218 Quantum Supremacy

Four months after the Galaxy-1 was finalized, the Tianyan quantum computer was assembled at the Hangzhou Quantum Computing Center.

This is not a prototype. It is a complete system consisting of fourteen cryogenic thermostats, one hundred and twelve control circuit boards, and over thirty thousand superconducting coaxial cables. The casing is a uniform silver-white 402 stainless steel, with a dark blue display screen embedded at the top front. The entire machine is as quiet as a stone.

Shen Yiming stood in front of the control panel, his hand on the start button. He glanced back at Zuo Cheng.

Zuo Cheng stood in the observation area, with Yu Ying, Chen Hao, Fang Ze, Han Lu, and the entire staff of the quantum laboratory behind him. No one spoke.

"Press it."

Shen Yiming pressed the start button.

The system self-test log popped up on the screen. Cryogenic module one started up, temperature 0.002 Kelvin. Module two started up. Module three started up. It took 300 seconds for all fourteen cryogenic thermostats to stabilize. Then the superconducting coil was energized, and 1008 qubits entered a superposition state simultaneously.

Another screen nearby displayed comparative data. To the left of Tianyan was China's fastest supercomputer, TaihuLight, capable of 125 quadrillion floating-point operations per second. To the lower right was Google's Sycamore Quantum Processor, with 53 qubits.

Before Tianyan, these numbers became mere background.

The test task involved simulating the molecular structure of nitrogenase. The electron configuration of the iron-molybdenum cofactor is extremely complex, making it one of the most difficult objects to simulate in the field of chemistry.

The estimated completion time for the Taihu Light Project is ten hours.

A number popped up on the Tianyan main screen: all 108 qubits were online without any anomalies. The error correction system automatically allocated computing resources, and the adaptive quantum error correction algorithm completed the initialization of all logical qubits within 0.3 seconds.

Shen Yiming's voice came through the communicator. "Task loading complete. Simulation of the all-electronic structure of nitrogenase iron-molybdenum cofactor. Confirmed."

Zuo Cheng pressed the confirm button.

The screen timer starts ticking from zero. The quantum state evolution trajectories weave a complex network on the main panel that is too intricate for the naked eye to follow.

There was silence in the quantum computing center. Yu Ying stared intently at the quantum volume utilization rate on the screen: 96.7%. Shen Yiming's fingers hovered motionless above the keyboard.

Ninety seconds. The calculation results begin to be output. It's not a single data line, but a full electronic structure distribution map output simultaneously in parallel on 320 computing nodes.

One hundred and seventy-two seconds. The last line of data is complete. Large green text pops up in the center of the screen.

Calculation complete.

Total time: 172 seconds. Error range: ±0.3 millielectron volts. Completeness of the all-electronic structure simulation: 99.7%. Traditional supercomputers would require 10,000 years.

Shen Yiming removed his hands from the keyboard, his fingers trembling slightly. He remained in that position for over three minutes. But he couldn't speak. No one in the quantum computing center could speak.

Zuo Cheng was the first to speak. "Make all the data public. The verification methods, the raw data, the entire calculation process logs—not a single word should be deleted."

Han Lu was taken aback. "Completely public?"

"No need for a press conference," Zuo Cheng said. "The data will hold the press conference for us."

At 4 p.m. that day, Tianyan's complete computational data was simultaneously launched on the 402 website and three of the world's top preprint platforms.

Four hours later, the independent verification results from the Key Laboratory of Quantum Information of the Chinese Academy of Sciences came out. They were completely consistent. The all-electronic structure of the nitrogenase iron-molybdenum cofactor was completely simulated for the first time.

An hour later, MIT's verification results came back. They were also completely consistent.

Then the world fell silent for thirty minutes. It wasn't that nobody cared; everyone was processing the same thing. A Chinese science and technology company, less than seven years old, had completed a calculation in 172 seconds using its self-designed quantum computer—a calculation that would take a traditional supercomputer ten thousand years.

All the original data is publicly available, and any laboratory with supercomputing resources can reproduce it on the spot. The Chinese Academy of Sciences reproduced it, MIT reproduced it, then Caltech, and the Max Planck Institute.

That evening, the front pages of global technology media outlets simultaneously changed to the same word.

Quantum supremacy. A Chinese company has achieved quantum supremacy for the first time.

At 2 a.m., Han Lu received a phone call. It was from the technology editor of the Wall Street Journal. This was the first time in his 20 years in the industry that he had proactively made an overseas call to a company he had never interviewed before.

After hanging up the phone, Han Lu sent Zuo Cheng a message: "Are you asleep?"

"In the office."

When she pushed open the door to Zuo Cheng's office, the screen was scrolling through live feeds of global tech media. The Washington Post reported that a Chinese company had established quantum supremacy, leading Google by at least five years. Nature magazine reported that Tianyan had rewritten the rules of the quantum computing game. CCTV reported that my country had achieved a historic breakthrough in quantum computing.

IBM's quantum team posted a single sentence on social media: "We are checking the data." There was no follow-up.

The head of Google's quantum team tweeted, "Congratulations to Team 402, quantum computing belongs to all mankind." The comments section exploded. Some calculated that Google's quantum supremacy three years ago was 53 qubits for 200 seconds, while Team 402's is now 108 qubits for 172 seconds. They're not in the same competition.

After reading the tweet, Zuo Cheng said, "This is not the end."

Han Lu said, "I know. You always say 'This isn't the end' at any press conference. But sometimes it's okay to savor the end a little."

Zuo Cheng looked at her and smiled. Then he took a document out of the drawer. A new project proposal. A line of text on the cover.

Thousands of qubits, stable error correction, commercialization.

Han Lu opened the book. The first page read: "Within three months, Tianyan Quantum Computing Cloud Service will be launched."

She closed the proposal. "Give me a price."

"0.5 yuan per quantum bit hour."

Han Lu did some calculations and then said, "Any research institution or university laboratory in the world, as long as it's connected to the internet, can use the world's most powerful quantum computer. The money they pay won't cover our R&D costs, but it will allow us to accumulate the world's largest dataset of quantum computing usage."

"right."

Han Lu packed the project proposal into her bag, walked to the door, then turned back and said, "When I joined 402, you were a college student crammed into a tiny 40-square-meter room with your roommates in an incubator. Now you have a quantum computer that crushes IBM and Google."

Zuo Cheng said, "There's more."

"I know you have more."

After she left, Zuo Cheng stood by the window. Dawn was approaching. On the civilization perception interface, the beam of light in the direction of quantum computing had changed from a faint light blue to a deep purple, and more than a dozen new small beams of light were emerging beside it. Quantum chip materials, ultra-low temperature refrigeration equipment, and optimization of quantum error correction algorithms—the entire ecosystem was taking root under Tianyan's leadership.

On the system panel, the progress bar for the eighth branch jumped to 67%. The bark texture was almost complete, with only a third remaining blank. But the edge of that blank area was glowing.

It is not the light of waiting. It is the light of an impending breakthrough.