China has revealed its newest quantum system, which combines the Xiaohong-504, a 504-qubit superconducting quantum chip, with the Tianyan-504 quantum computer. This breakthrough is credited to China Telecom Quantum Group (CTQG), which plans to enhance national telecommunications security using the new supercomputer. The Xiaohong-504 chip has shown impressive performance in key areas like qubit lifetime, gate fidelity, and circuit depth, putting it on par with established quantum platforms like IBM. The first Xiaohong-504 processor will be delivered to QuantumCTek, a quantum technology company in Anhui Province, for extensive testing of kilo-qubit measurement and control systems.
Although the Tianyan-504 is a significant achievement, it currently lags behind some international competitors in terms of qubit count. Atom Computing's 1,180-qubit prototype was unveiled in late 2023, while IBM's 1,121-qubit Condor processor leads in raw qubit numbers. The development of the Tianyan-504 was a joint effort involving CTQG, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and QuantumCTek. The system will be integrated into the Tianyan quantum cloud platform, which has gained global attention since its launch in November 2023, attracting over 12 million visits from users in more than 50 countries. Rather than solely aiming for quantum supremacy, the Tianyan-504 project focuses on building infrastructure for large-scale quantum systems.
