China quantum router hits 98% in Origin Wukong test

What China says it has demonstrated

China’s latest quantum hardware claim centers on a deceptively simple number: 98%. According to reports published this week, research teams involving Origin Quantum, the University of Science and Technology of China and the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center AI Research Institute developed a coherent quantum routing system on the Origin Wukong superconducting quantum computer, with single-router information transmission efficiency reaching as high as 98% [1].

The system is aimed at bucket-brigade quantum random access memory, or QRAM, a proposed architecture that would let quantum computers address stored data more efficiently. In this design, the quantum router is the switching element: it directs information to the right location according to address instructions, while preserving the quantum properties that make the data useful in the first place [1].

The reported experiment did not stop at a single component. The teams built three independent quantum routers and a two-layer routing network on Origin Wukong. The single-router transmission efficiency reached 98%, while the two-layer network reached 93% overall transmission efficiency [1]. In separate random-access tests, average fidelity was reported at 94.8% for the single router and 82.4% for the two-layer network [1].

Those distinctions matter. Transmission efficiency describes how successfully information passes through the routing element. Fidelity describes how closely the output quantum state matches the intended state. A headline figure of 98% is impressive, but the lower fidelity and lower network-level result show that scaling remains the harder part of the problem [4].

Why a router matters in a quantum system

In conventional networks, a router can inspect, copy, buffer and resend data packets. Quantum information is different. Unknown quantum states cannot simply be copied and amplified in the same way, and every extra operation risks decoherence, leakage or gate error. That is why routing is not just a networking convenience in quantum systems; it is part of the physics budget.

The reports frame the new system as a “fast lane” for quantum data inside a QRAM architecture [1]. The analogy is useful, but only up to a point. This is not a telecom router moving internet traffic, and it is not a field-deployed quantum communications node. It is a hardware demonstration inside a superconducting quantum computing platform. Still, the underlying challenge is related to a broader quantum-networking problem: fragile states must be guided through increasingly complex hardware without letting losses and errors compound beyond usefulness.

QRAM is important because many proposed quantum algorithms assume some efficient way to access data. Science and Technology Daily described QRAM as a kind of data center for the quantum computer, supporting quantum search and quantum machine-learning algorithms [1]. ScienceNet, citing the Chinese research account, made the same point: the router is the core component that sends data to a target position under address control [2].

The practical bottleneck is circuit depth. In more traditional implementations, as a routing network grows, each added node can require many standard quantum gates to decompose and execute the routing instruction. More gates mean longer circuits. Longer circuits mean more opportunities for errors to accumulate [1]. The claimed advance is that the team used auxiliary energy levels in superconducting qubits to turn complex controlled-swap operations into shallower circuits built from fewer two-qubit transition gates [2].

The numbers behind the claim

The strongest reported result is the single-router transmission efficiency of up to 98% [1]. In isolation, that suggests the routing element can move information with relatively low loss inside the tested architecture. The two-layer network’s 93% efficiency is also important because it shows performance after adding routing complexity, not just in a single isolated unit [1].

But the fidelity data adds caution. The average fidelity of 94.8% for individual routers fell to 82.4% in the two-layer network [1]. That drop is exactly why the result should be read as a research milestone rather than proof that large-scale QRAM is ready. As systems add layers, channels and address paths, small imperfections become system-level constraints.

Global Times quoted Tian Feng, former dean of SenseTime’s Intelligence Industry Research Institute, as saying the significance is not only the 98% figure but also the potential to reduce operational complexity and accumulated errors in quantum computing [3]. The same report also included a warning: 98% routing efficiency does not mean commercial large-scale QRAM is ready, because error control, hardware stability and system costs remain major hurdles [3].

That is the balanced interpretation. The experiment is a step toward more efficient routing. It is not a final architecture for commercial quantum memory, and it is not a complete solution for quantum communications infrastructure.

What Origin Wukong contributes

Origin Wukong is described in the reports as China’s third-generation independently developed superconducting quantum computer [1]. The point of testing the routing system on real hardware is that it moves the claim beyond a purely theoretical circuit or simulation. The team physically implemented three routers and a two-layer network on an operating superconducting platform [1].

That matters because quantum computing progress is increasingly judged not only by qubit counts, but also by how well systems perform useful subroutines. A machine with more qubits is not automatically more capable if the extra qubits cannot be controlled, connected or used in deeper circuits. The router result fits a broader shift from chasing single performance indicators to demonstrating more complex functions on real machines [1].

PC Central’s report described the system as coherent and reversible routing controlled by quantum addresses, adding that it was designed to direct quantum information without destroying the fragile states required for computation [5]. That description captures the engineering point: the router is valuable only if it routes while preserving quantum coherence.

Why this is relevant beyond QRAM

Although the immediate experiment concerns QRAM, routing is a foundational problem across quantum technologies. Secure quantum communications, distributed quantum computing and future quantum cloud architectures all require ways to move quantum states, keys or entanglement through networks with manageable loss.

The subject is especially important for telecom, defense and cloud infrastructure because quantum networking will not scale if every connection is a point-to-point demonstration. Multi-node systems need repeatable, efficient routing elements. The Chinese result does not provide a deployable carrier network component, but it adds evidence that routing primitives can be engineered with better efficiency on superconducting hardware.

There is also a strategic hardware lesson. The reported method does not rely simply on adding more physical qubits. Instead, it uses additional energy levels of superconducting qubits to reduce circuit complexity [2]. If that approach proves repeatable, it could help designers extract more functionality from existing quantum chips, reducing some control and calibration burdens while improving the relationship between chip layout and circuit design [3].

The limits to keep in view

The headline can invite overstatement. A “98% quantum router” does not mean China has built a quantum internet. It does not mean quantum computers can now load arbitrary large data sets at will. It also does not mean the two-layer system preserved states with 98% fidelity. The reported fidelity for the two-layer network was 82.4%, which is useful as a proof point but still leaves significant room for improvement [1].

The source trail also shows that the result became public through a mix of Chinese official science reporting, domestic technology coverage and international summaries. News Minimalist’s aggregation of the Interesting Engineering report emphasized that the two-layer performance trailed the individual router result, a useful reminder that scaling is the central question [4].

The next tests will need to show whether the same architecture can hold up across more layers, more address states and longer operations. Researchers will also have to show how the method interacts with error correction, calibration drift and real workloads. A router that works well in a controlled QRAM demonstration must eventually prove that it can operate as part of a larger, fault-tolerant stack.

Bottom line

China’s reported 98% quantum-router transmission efficiency is best understood as progress in the plumbing layer of quantum hardware. The demonstration on Origin Wukong shows a coherent routing approach for bucket-brigade QRAM, with strong single-router performance and a meaningful two-layer test [1].

The achievement is not a finished quantum network. It is a hardware milestone that narrows one of the gaps between laboratory quantum processors and scalable architectures. For quantum computing, communications and secure-networking players, that is why the result matters: not because one number solves the problem, but because efficient routing is one of the prerequisites for building quantum systems that extend beyond isolated demonstrations.

Sources from the last 72 hours

1. [1]“本源悟空”破解量子随机存储器扩展难题Sep 2, 2026, 5:37 AM UTC
2. [2]为量子随机存取存储器架设“快速路”Sep 2, 2026, 7:40 AM UTC
3. [3]China achieves 98% transmission efficiency in single quantum router breakthroughSep 3, 2026, 3:18 AM UTC
4. [4]Quantum router hits 98% efficiency in China's Wukong testsSep 3, 2026, 8:04 PM UTC
5. [5]Origin Quantum Benewu Wukong Routing System Hits 98% EfficiencySep 3, 2026, 1:16 PM UTC

AI-generated article based on recent web research, then preserved as a dated editorial snapshot.