Capítulo 747: Chapter 242: Are They Getting Anxious?

When there was no team, Qiao Yu was already able to complete the calculation of large Mersenne primes using the new algorithm. From this perspective, even without team assistance, Qiao Yu could ultimately achieve the project goals on his own.

It would just take longer. But considering Qiao Yu’s age, this issue is almost non-existent, as a seventeen-year-old still has plenty of time to spare.

But for them, it’s different. Their average age is almost forty. They can no longer enjoy the benefits reserved for young scientists when applying for projects, and now they face a bottleneck in life. In short, they have few years to waste.

“Don’t worry, I met with Dr. Qiao yesterday, and he specifically mentioned that the list would be released according to schedule. So this matter must have been reported to the higher-ups.

Don’t be fooled by Dr. Qiao’s youth; he knows how to handle these things. And with Academician Tian and Elder Yuan backing him up, any lack of opposition from them indicates an agreement has been reached with the foundation.”

Zheng Zefeng replied calmly.

After meeting with Qiao Yu yesterday, he felt his chances of being selected were quite high.

According to Qiao Yu, even just based on achievements, he was a standout in the mathematics category, not to mention his connection with Zhang Shuwen.

Most importantly, although he only had a few words with Qiao Yu yesterday, he felt he handled it well.

Especially Qiao Yu’s final abrupt question.

Although it was unclear at the time, after learning about Professor Frank’s situation today, Zheng Zefeng understood.

There was talk of bad people not getting good returns and ending cooperation with Berkeley Branch…

Fortunately, he didn’t express any opposition at the time and took into account Qiao Yu’s feelings.

“That’s good; it’s not great to have any surprises at this critical juncture,” Professor Luo Qixun, sitting next to Zheng Zefeng, echoed.

He was enrolled in the team as an NLP algorithm engineer, coming from an institution still familiar to Qiao Yu, the Huaxia Science Academy Computing Technology Research Institute.

His primary work there focused on research and development of algorithms related to natural language processing.

Upon learning that Qiao Yu’s project required related algorithm engineers, he signed up immediately and was fortunately approved.

However, among everyone, Luo Qixun was probably the most uncertain in his heart. After all, his current work content didn’t completely align with the project’s current requirements.

But since he was selected, he certainly had to make a trip.

After all, Quantum Computing isn’t just about a SHOR algorithm for cracking passwords.

If future developments go well, and electronic computers can truly simulate computation of a million bits, they could also be used to develop Artificial General Intelligence, the legendary AGI.

By then, his work experience would come in handy.

However, even now, Luo Qixun felt he could contribute significantly to the project. He’s been dealing with algorithms for many years and had previously researched quantum-related algorithms; it just needs some time to pick it up again.

“I think Professor Zheng is right; we’re worrying over nothing now. If there really were any issues with the project, a notice would definitely be issued immediately.

For such a large project, if no one backed it up, Dr. Qiao couldn’t possibly make decisions alone. So, rather than worry over these things, why not consider whether you can join the project group!”

“Ah…”

Mentioning this issue made everyone start to worry again.

It’s been many years since they had this kind of anxiety over exam results. Usually, they were the ones grading the research students under them, who would’ve thought at this age they’d experience the anticipation before the release of exam results again.

Speaking of this, Zheng Zefeng also didn’t know what to say.

Although he felt he had a strong chance, until the results were finally announced, even his former mentor Zhang Shuwen couldn’t guarantee he would definitely be selected and just encouraged him to do his best.

“Hey, everyone look at this news, Microsoft’s official website released an announcement at dawn about holding a product launch tomorrow, officially unveiling the most advanced new Majorana Quantum Chip.”

“Microsoft? They’ve supposedly been working on a topological architecture quantum chip, right? Did they succeed?”

“Should be. But the specific technology used will have to wait for the official release to find out, right? Isn’t it a coincidence? Just at this critical moment, they hurriedly release this technology. Is it because the talks with Dr. Qiao fell apart, or because they’ve concluded well?”

“Let me see.” Hearing this, Zheng Zefeng’s heart skipped a beat, and he leaned over to take a closer look.

It was a piece of news released by the Huaxia Technology Network. This sort of official media wouldn’t randomly forward news without confirmed information.

Of course, it couldn’t be random forwarding. After all, there was even a screenshot of Microsoft’s website on the news.

Someone even directly logged into Microsoft’s official website to check and soon saw the news.

After all, it was the latest release, right on the homepage.

“The news was released at five past five a.m.? Just two hours ago? A product launch at ten? Was this completely unprepared? Has Microsoft stock been falling badly lately?”

“Not just Microsoft. Recently, the few high-tech companies that have laid out in Quantum Computing haven’t had a hard time with their stock. Only Apple didn’t invest prematurely, and its decline was the smallest. Who would’ve thought that being lackluster could become an advantage for maintaining stock prices.”

“Looks like they’re in a hurry to show off, huh? This is obviously targeting our project, isn’t it? I estimate that the talks with Dr. Qiao didn’t go well, so they’re adding leverage on their side, otherwise, it’s impossible to release the latest results so suddenly.”

“Haha, doesn’t this show that Dr. Qiao’s pressure on them is too great? Right, I remember Microsoft published a paper in ‘Nature’ last year about their latest quantum chip architecture, using some new material, how about we pull out the literature and take a look.”

A piece of breaking news successfully drew the attention of these people, which shows that although the final project acceptance list has not yet been announced, these professors and researchers have already considered themselves part of the project group.

Especially since the timing of releasing the new product is obviously highly targeted. This further elevated the level of discussion on-site.

Being professionals, they quickly retrieved a series of papers published by Microsoft over the years on quantum chip technology from the literature search database.

And quickly sorted out the development context through these papers.

“This is completely different from our optical quantum route, a topological architecture constructed layer by layer with indium arsenide semiconductors and superconducting aluminum, involving operations at the atomic level. This technology should be challenging to mass-produce, shouldn’t it? Commercial application should still be a long way off.”

“Hmm, the commercialization timeline for quantum computers was never definite. But the specifics still depend on what will be said at the release later.

The announcement said the product launch will be hosted by Nadella himself, which shows that Microsoft attaches great importance to this launch, why not watch it together later?”

“It’s worth keeping an eye on. But does Dr. Qiao know about this news? I think, given Dr. Qiao’s temperament, he certainly won’t like this.”

“Hahaha… Maybe Dr. Qiao is already gearing up to make a move.

Why are you all looking at me like that? I’ve specifically studied Dr. Qiao’s resume, and every time someone tries to get ahead of him, he manages to make some noise…”

As they continued chatting, everyone’s mood surprisingly became relaxed.

After all, regarding quantum hardware, the other side hasn’t hyped it up for the first time, either. Back in 2019, Google announced that its Sycamore processor executed a random circuit sampling computing problem with a 200-second to ten-thousand-year advantage, achieving Quantum Dominance.

But to this day, Quantum Computing still hasn’t become the world’s mainstream computing model.

Including machine learning training, large language models, machine vision, and AI training, the binary classic computers remain the mainstream.

But Qiao Yu’s simulated quantum operations did genuinely calculate out two super Mersenne primes, which means there is already application potential…

Doesn’t this seem like the other side is desperate?