MilestoneQuantum advantageConfirmed

Benchmark finds no quantum speedup on a D-Wave Two

Jan 13, 2014

Troels Rønnow, Matthias Troyer and colleagues test a D-Wave Two with up to 503 qubits on random spin-glass problems against classical methods. Across the full data set they find no evidence of a quantum speedup; they note this does not rule out a speedup on other problems.

Why it matters

It set out how to measure a quantum speedup fairly and became a reference point in the debate over whether D-Wave's annealers outperform classical computers.

Troels F. Rønnow · Matthias Troyer · Daniel A. Lidar · John M. Martinis · D-Wave · ETH Zurich · Google

See it on the timeline

Related

• Lockheed Martin buys the D-Wave One, billed as the first commercial quantum computer (May 2011)
• Google's D-Wave speedup claim sparks debate over fair comparisons (Dec 8, 2015)
• Kadowaki and Nishimori study quantum annealing for optimization (Apr 25, 1998)