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Intel Touts Silicon Spin Qubits for Quantum Computing
"Intel has invented a spin qubit fabrication flow on its 300 mm process technology using isotopically pure wafers sourced specifically for the production of spin-qubit test chips. Fabricated in the same facility as Intel's advanced transistor technologies, Intel is now testing the initial wafers. Within a couple of months, Intel expects to be producing many wafers per week, each with thousands of small qubit arrays," according to the Intel news brief posted online today.
The topic isn't exactly new. Use of quantum dots for qubits has long been studied. The new Nature paper, A programmable two-qubit quantum processor in silicon, demonstrated overcoming some of the cross-talk obstacles presented when using quantum dots.
[...] Intel emphasizes silicon spin qubits can operate at higher temperatures than superconducting qubits (1 kelvin as opposed to 20 millikelvin). "This could drastically reduce the complexity of the system required to operate the chips by allowing the integration of control electronics much closer to the processor. Intel and academic research partner QuTech are exploring higher temperature operation of spin qubits with interesting results up to 1K (or 50x warmer) than superconducting qubits. The team is planning to share the results at the American Physical Society (APS) meeting in March."
A programmable two-qubit quantum processor in silicon (DOI: 10.1038/nature25766) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 18 2018, @01:19PM
Probably not.
For an fpga, the resources to make the user logic is about 1/10 of that for the programmable interconnection logic.
Why would the user logic constraints (entanglements?) surrounding qbits be a different story.
The first logic chips were hardwired fixed logic circuits, not field programmable.
A computer is definitely a field programmable thing.
It seems to take the quantum 'computer' thing seriously, one would first have to see a non-programmable qbit logic circuit doing something useful.
Factoring 15 or 21, or wow, even 77 might be a nice baby step.
Then progress factoring bigger and bigger products of 2 primes.
When I see a graph of number of bits in the product versus year first accomplished which show steady progress up to 100 bits, then I'll be interested.
When it gets to 2000, then the code breakers can take a break.
Except that by then, the code makers will have raised the bar.