On January 20, 2024, Academia Sinica announced the launch of Taiwan’s first domestically built superconducting quantum computer, equipped with a 5-qubit chip. The project was completed ahead of schedule; the original Ministry of Science and Technology timeline had called for the development of 3-qubit chips by February 2023, according to the Taipei Times.
Chen Chii-dong, a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Research Center of Applied Sciences, reported that the computer’s logic gate reached a 99.9 percent fidelity rate. The system was made available as a test and development platform for quantum computing, ultra-low temperature complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, and operational amplifier research.
Academia Sinica President James Liao stated that he hoped the institution’s progress would drive the development of quantum research and related industries in Taiwan and attract domestic and international talent. The quantum computing project involved collaboration with the Industrial Technology Research Institute, several Taiwanese universities, and international partners including the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.