The Morning After: Google reveals its powerful Willow quantum chip

Engadget 10.12.2024 14:20 In its own heady blog post, Google debuted Willow, its latest quantum chip. It was flanked by hyped headlines that suggest something akin to the obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The breakthrough might not be about the power, however: Google says it has reduced errors — a major issue with building quantum computers — by adding more qubits to the system. In fact, Google makes no claim of quantum supremacy this time — something the company did when it publicly debuted its previous generation quantum computer in 2019. That claim quickly ended in controversy, with one researcher calling the company’s announcement “just plain wrong.” Part of the issue then was that Google’s last quantum chip was not part of a general-purpose quantum computer. Instead, it surpassed classic computers in a single task: random circuit sampling . But, in Google’s own words, RCS has “no known real-world applications.” Google However, the company is sticking with the metric, claiming RCS performance is a widely recognized gauge of quantum computing. That makes true comparisons difficult: Rivals including IBM and Honeywell use a quantum volume metric to tout their breakthroughs. They claim it gives a more holistic understanding of a machine’s capabilities. Google’s spec sheets and blog post don’t mention quantum volume at all. — Mat Smith Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The biggest tech stories you missed OpenAI’s Sora video generation AI model arrives globally Grok’s new Aurora image generator is back and rolling out to everyone on X What’s new in iOS 18.2 Bose Smart Soundbar review Earbuds as surround sound speakers. Bose may be best known for its noise-canceling headphones and earbuds, but the company has a solid track record with speakers and soundbars too. With its new Smart Soundbar, however, it integrates its own earbuds to offer lots of directional audio. Sound quality is clear, the soundbar itself is compact and understated, but it all lacks a little in the bass department. Check out our full review. Continue reading. Rode’s Wireless GO III adds more storage and some color options There’s now 40 hours of on-board storage. Rode Rode just announced the latest iteration of its well-regarded Wireless GO microphone system. The third-gen kit has 32-bit float on-board recording and audio can be captured directly to the receiver. The system can store up to 40 hours of footage — substantially more than the seven hours of the GO II. It also packs a new feature called GainAssist that will “dynamically balance audio levels on the fly.” Rode says the system eliminates “the wild fluctuations typically found in a raw recording.” It's $300 and has a dedicated charging case, sold separately for $90. Continue reading. The Raspberry Pi 500 is a $90 computer in a keyboard You can use it anywhere with a free USB port. Engadget The Raspberry Pi 500 shares most of the same internal components as the Raspberry Pi 5, but with a keyboard shell and improved heatsink — all for $90. The Pi 500 has a 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU and 8GB of RAM. There are three USB A ports but no USB-C slots besides the charger, which doesn’t support peripherals, sadly. The kit will sell for $120, and if you need a monitor, the company also launched its Raspberry Pi Monitor for $100. Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-google-reveals-its-powerful-willow-quantum-chip-121002850.html?src=rss

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