About Willow Chip

• It operates using superconducting transmon qubits—tiny electrical circuits exhibiting quantum behaviour at extremely low temperatures. 
• The chip is capable of solving complex computations under 5 minutes that otherwise would have taken the world's fastest supercomputers 10 septillion (10^25) years to complete.

About Quantum Computing

• It uses the principles of quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than traditional/ classical computers.
  • Traditional computers use bits to process information as either 0s or 1s, whereas quantum computers use qubits, which can represent both 0 and 1 simultaneously.
• Principles of quantum mechanics involved are:
  • Superposition: State in which a quantum particle can represent not just one possibility, but a combination of multiple possibilities.
  • Entanglement: Process in which multiple quantum particles become correlated more strongly than regular probability allows.
  • Others: Decoherence, and Interference.

Application of Quantum Computing

• Artificial intelligence/ Machine Learning, cybersecurity, financial modelling, drug development, weather forecasting, traffic management, etc.

Challenges of Quantum Computing

• Quantum errors due to noise, decoherence, etc.
• Scalability due to requirement of specialized techniques and materials, 
• Qubit's short life span, 
• Ineffective security protocols, 
• Shortage of skilled manpower etc.