Google has unveiled a new chip that can reportedly take just five minutes to solve a problem that takes the fastest super computer 10 septillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) years.
The chip, measuring at just 4 cm, has been called “Willow”.
It is the latest development in quantum computing, a field that is attempting to use the principles of particle physics to create a new type of computer.
Google says that Willow is a key breakthrough, far less prone to error and "paves the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer."
However, scientists say that, for now at least, while it is exciting that it is a mostly experimental device, and that a quantum computer powerful enough to solve a wide range of real-world problems is still a while away.
“What it really does is show that quantum computing technology is rapidly moving forward. It really is working.” said Dr Peter Leek, a research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Quantum Institute.
Describing the Google results as a “shining example” of improvements he still warned that the fast processing results were “not of much real-world use”.