Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by on Monday January 09 2017, @10:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-if-we're-in-the-wrong-parallel-universe? dept.

Quantum computing may be leaping out of the lab soon:

Quantum computing has long seemed like one of those technologies that are 20 years away, and always will be. But 2017 could be the year that the field sheds its research-only image. Computing giants Google and Microsoft recently hired a host of leading lights, and have set challenging goals for this year. Their ambition reflects a broader transition taking place at start-ups and academic research labs alike: to move from pure science towards engineering. "People are really building things," says Christopher Monroe, a physicist at the University of Maryland in College Park who co-founded the start-up IonQ in 2015. "I've never seen anything like that. It's no longer just research."

Google started working on a form of quantum computing that harnesses superconductivity in 2014. It hopes this year, or shortly after, to perform a computation that is beyond even the most powerful 'classical' supercomputers — an elusive milestone known as quantum supremacy. Its rival, Microsoft, is betting on an intriguing but unproven concept, topological quantum computing, and hopes to perform a first demonstration of the technology.

Separate article about IonQ.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by zeigerpuppy on Tuesday January 10 2017, @01:26AM

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Tuesday January 10 2017, @01:26AM (#451808)

    I had a fascinating conversation with a quantum physicist a few years ago.
    He'd just received a multi-million pound grant from the UK and was working on quantum entangling domains by seeding crystalline substrates with impurities.
    At the conclusion of our conversation, I asked him how long he thought it would be before quantum computing (at least a few qbits able to be used in synchrony) and he gave a fascinating answer: "we think we have a good method, but no-one is really sure yet; it may even be that a true quantum computer ends up being theoretically impossible."
    Heisenberg may yet have his day...

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Interesting=2, Informative=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @07:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2017, @07:27PM (#452197)

    it may even be that a true quantum computer ends up being theoretically impossible."
    Heisenberg may yet have his day...

    We can have quantum computing, BUT either some cats will die, or many cats will semi-die.