Intel Says New Chip Shows Rapid Progress in Quantum Computing

Intel Corp., the world’s largest semiconductor maker, said it delivered a test chip to a research partner that demonstrates the rapid progress being made in the field of quantum computing, which in theory would be able to perform tasks on huge amounts of data and do it faster than regular computers.

The Santa Clara, California-based company said it handed over a 17-qubit chip to QuTech, a Netherlands-based research firm. The new chip shows how important conventional semiconductor manufacturing techniques are to advancing the new field, Intel said in a posting on its website Tuesday.