Physicists in China have announced that they built the fastest programmable superconducting quantum computing system.

According to an official press release late on Tuesday, the quantum computing system, called Zuchongzhi 2.1, is able to perform large-scale random quantum circuits sampling 10 million times faster than the fastest existing supercomputer.

"This remarkable feat makes China the first country to achieve a quantum computational advantage in two mainstream technical routes -- one via photonics quantum computing technology and the other via superconducting quantum computing technology," it added.

The research was conducted under well-known Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei.

The two major technical schemes used in experiments to demonstrate a "quantum computational advantage" are the light-based Gaussian boson sampling and random quantum circuits sampling based on superconducting quantum bits -- or qubits, added the press release.

Bits are the smallest unit by which traditional computers store and process data. Quantum computing systems make use of quantum particles to provide an overwhelming speedup over traditional computers.

The researchers said that Jiuzhang, a light-based quantum computing system they also designed, could "carry out large-scale GBS 100 trillion times faster than the world's fastest existing supercomputer."/agencies