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posted by janrinok on Monday May 07 2018, @03:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the another-bright-idea dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow3941

A team of researchers in Germany and at the University of Michigan have demonstrated how infrared laser pulses can shift electrons between two different states, the classic 1 and 0, in a thin sheet of semiconductor

"Ordinary electronics are in the range of gigahertz, one billion operations per second. This method is a million times faster," said Mackillo Kira, U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

He led the theoretical part of the study, to be published in the journal Nature, collaborating with physicists at the University of Marburg in Germany. The experiment was done at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

[... Quantum computer] qubits are hard to make because quantum states are extremely fragile. The main commercial route, pursued by companies such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft and D-Wave, uses superconducting circuits—loops of wire cooled to extremely cold temperatures (-321°F or less), at which the electrons stop colliding with each other and instead form shared quantum states through a phenomenon known as coherence.

Rather than finding a way to hang onto a quantum state for a long time, the new study demonstrates a way to do the processing before the states fall apart.

"In the long run, we see a realistic chance of introducing quantum information devices that perform operations faster than a single oscillation of a lightwave," said Rupert Huber, professor of physics at the University of Regensburg, who led the experiment. "The material is relatively easy to make, it works in room temperature air, and at just a few atoms thick, it is maximally compact."

Source: http://www.opli.net/opli_magazine/eo/2018/light-could-make-semiconductor-computers-a-million-times-faster-or-even-go-quantum-may-news/


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 07 2018, @03:35AM (9 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 07 2018, @03:35AM (#676546) Journal

    That thought has crossed my mind, a few times. Likely, millions of other people have given it a thought or more.

    We use fiber optic at work. Of course, it is limited - mostly, our fiber optic cables carry data from one obsolete computer, to another obsolete computer. But, the transmission is fast! Imagine that, if you will. A fiber optic cable, in use on a machine which also utilizes a 486 CPU, spinning rust data storage, buses that were new in the days of 286 and 386 computers. Some of it may date back to the days of 8080 CPU's.

    So, here you are, standing in front of a machine that combines several generations of technology, trying to troubleshoot a problem. And, you ask yourself, "Why can't the manufacturer use up-to-date tech from end to end?" The most obvious answer to that question is probably licensing fees.

    All the same, the inquisitive mind can picture everything going fiber optic, SSD, non-volatile memory, and eliminating tons of heat generating junk in the cabinets. FFS, we still have ALUMINUM conductors in some of that stuff. Aluminum never has been a good choice for a conductor, and it's hard to believe that major manufacturers ever did use it. But, I open a cabinet, and there it is!

    The typical control cabinet on our machines is about 3 feet wide, 2 feet high, and six inches in depth. That's typical - some are larger, a few are a little smaller. This concept could reduce those cabinets to something about the size of a 2 1/2" hard drive.

    The downside to that is, Yours Truly wouldn't be qualified to make any repairs to the damned thing, LOL! Oh well - maybe I'm growing obsolete.

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  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @05:11AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @05:11AM (#676555)

    Light, huh?

    That thought has crossed my mind skull, a few times

    FTFY. An empty skull doesn't allow thoughts, but light can travel unimpeded.

    [incoherent pointless rambling in-between...]

    ...ending with:

    The downside to that is, Yours Truly wouldn't be qualified to make any repairs to the damned thing, LOL!

    I.e. a fullstop after "qualified", everything else is redundant.
    And it's not optative/conditional, but the reality, as in: "Yours Truly is not qualified"
    The silverline in the above: this isn't actually a "downside", quite the contrary. Perhaps it may be a "downside" to you, but you are a negligible error in the great picture of this world. One can go further and say "an ugly error", but that's just squabbling over details, nobody will challenge the "negligible" side.

    Oh well - maybe I'm growing obsolete.

    True that and no doubt can exist.
    An additional correction: this is no longer a thing in progress. You reached that stage quite a long time ago, you just don't realize it.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 07 2018, @07:14AM (4 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 07 2018, @07:14AM (#676568) Journal

      Sounds a bit like Aristarchus, but I'm not sure. Probably not my female fan, as she uses more vulgarity than this. Is this a new adoring fan? So many fans, so many AC's . . .

      • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @07:27AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @07:27AM (#676570)

        "But how will I implement that feature?" That was the question that currently plagued Chapperson, who worked as a software developer. You see, a particularly troublesome boss had given the developer a hard-to-fulfill task, and he was expected to do so within a short timeframe; such was this man's life. Still, he enjoyed developing software because it often presented him with unique challenges. As the man was thinking about this, he looked downward. "Oh!" Chapperson exclaimed.

        He hadn't even realized it. Since it was normal for Chapperson, he must have unconsciously done this. What did this man do? A woman could be seen pinned down under Chapperson; her body was covered in blood and bruises, and she was naked. How had this happened without him realizing it?

        Chapperson then recalled that this phenomenon was quite common. Since rape was as natural to men as breathing, of course this sort of thing would happen occasionally. And, naturally, if someone were to tell an entire group of people to stop breathing, they would be looked at as genocidal maniacs. No, telling a man to stop raping was even worse; depriving men of their enjoyment in life was the same as torture. Therefore, anyone who believed such things would be labeled as a feminist, tortured, and then promptly executed. Chapperson became furious just by thinking about the mere concept of a feminist existing. He became furious; he became rough. Broken.

        The woman's face was broken. Even though he hadn't meant to, Chapperson had smashed her face to pieces and ended her wretched life in the process. This, too, was as natural as breathing. Chapperson then realized that a small child - probably the child of this woman - was crying in the background. The man smiled, and then took a deep breath. Yes, just like with the woman, Chapperson breathed. There was no longer a crying child, or any child making any sound whatsoever.

        A man walked out of a certain house. This man had his index finger pressed up against the bottom of his chin as he walked, showing off his inquisive nature to the world. "Now, then, how shall I implement that feature?" the man muttered to himself, as he walked away...

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @08:44AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @08:44AM (#676582)

        Sounds a bit like Aristarchus, but I'm not sure.

        What is one to do when that brain-mummified excuse of a philosopher acts so utterly fascinated by the insignificant blip the altright is making in the history? But, unlike you, he has some matter between his ears, dried, blackned and useless as that matter may be.

        Probably not my female fan, as she uses more vulgarity than this

        Not very hard to use more profanity than something that doesn't.
        Well, it may not be an ode to you, but I dare you to quote any profanity from the comment you replied.

        s this a new adoring fan? So many fans, so many AC's . . .

        I'll be grateful to you if you'll stop singing just before you reach the

              Too sexy for my cat
              Poor pussy ...

        because that would be a profanity, if you know what I mean. Let's keep it civilized, shall we?

      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday May 07 2018, @01:03PM (1 child)

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday May 07 2018, @01:03PM (#676630) Journal

        Sounds a bit like Aristarchus

        Not poetic enough and too blunt.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @04:11PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @04:11PM (#676677)

          Not poetic enough and too blunt.

          Perhaps it's jmorris? No, it's khallow. It simply must be him, there's can be no one else.
          Unless runaway is speaking to himself, age and binge drinking will do this.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Monday May 07 2018, @09:30AM (2 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Monday May 07 2018, @09:30AM (#676598)

    The downside to that is, Yours Truly wouldn't be qualified to make any repairs to the damned thing, LOL! Oh well - maybe I'm growing obsolete.

    Who (or what) could be qualified to make repairs on systems like that? Seems like they're moving towards print/fabricate, use, recycle. Sounds more like 'repair' is growing obsolete.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @10:23AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @10:23AM (#676604)

      My main concern is will I know what its doing? If its just to carry out someone else's agenda behind my back, I would probably be better off having nothing to do with it.

      Given this machine's temperature requirements, its probably nothing I need to be concerned about though as far as me having one in my house. Its my guess this will be used for correlating marketing data, doing insurance statistics on an individual basis, high frequency trading, and similar "economically productive" endeavors.

      I am not all that concerned about repairing it, as generally stuff these days is way too complex to repair. It would be akin to me trying to repair an LED. But in the case of processors, once I give up knowing exactly how they work, someone that does know how to do things behind my back with it has me at a real disadvantage. I note a lot of businesses and governments give the illusion they think "security" is "armed response", and don't seem to think much of the ramifications of having spilled beans, hence we have things like "management engines" built into silicon, whose main purpose seems to be making backdoors available to those who know how to ask. Security through obscurity is no security at all. Once the cat's out of the bag, all these people dependent on it are just as vulnerable as a bunch of people in a condo complex with a kid whose just discovered how to open everyone's garage door with a spoofer.

      Let me step into the future... computing is advanced to the point that every RIAA group has complete dossiers on everything I have purchased correlated to everything on my computer, and there exists a discrepancy - so they program my self-driving car to lock me in and deliver me straight to the police station where their legal team awaits. Do I really want my technology ratting me out like that and obeying other people's wishlists? I think this new tech is great, but to the point I can verify what its being programmed to do, which is already sorely lacking in the later runs of processors.

      Only God and a few elites know what these devices will have as hidden agendas. And whatever it is, it will be done well before I have the slightest inkling of observation that something went terribly wrong.

      Kinda offtopic, as this situation already exists. For me, anyway. But there was a time long ago that when things started going bad, but I was there, I could usually stop it before too much crap took place. You know, like seeing your modem lights flashing RX and TX when no data transfer was supposed to be happening....you knew something was hosing you and it was time to get the debugger to see who was spilling the beans.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @12:51PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @12:51PM (#676628)

        I was with you up to this line,
        > Only God and a few elites know what these devices will have as hidden agendas.

        We're similar except that I believe in one less God than you believe in.
        As well as the elites, there will also be all the programmers that work for the elites, and also all the crackers (hackers) that access/"steal" collected data.