(ECNS) - China's University of Science and Technology (USTC) said that its researchers had developed a new photonic quantum computing prototype capable of manipulating 3,050 photons, setting what the team described as a new world record in optical quantum computing.

The prototype, named "Jiuzhang-4," uses 1,024 squeezed-state inputs and 8,176 modes, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.

USTC said that this machine solved a Gaussian boson sampling problem, which is a benchmark task widely used to test quantum computing performance and is exponentially faster than conventional computers.

According to the university, Jiuzhang-4 can generate one sample in just 25 microseconds, while the world's fastest supercomputers using classical algorithms would require more than 10^42 (1 tredecillion) years to complete the same calculation.

The research team was led by Pan Jianwei, Lu Chaoyang, Zhang Qiang and Liu Naile, in collaboration with several Chinese research institutes and laboratories.

Lu said that the team developed a high-efficiency optical source and a hybrid spatiotemporal interferometer, allowing a major expansion in connectivity and photon-processing capability compared with the earlier Jiuzhang-3 system, which handled 255 photons.

China has invested heavily in quantum computing, an emerging technology viewed as strategically important for future computing, communications, and national security applications.

(By Zhang Jiahao)