Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Friday May 01 2015, @02:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the now-we-scale-it-up dept.

A superconducting chip developed at IBM demonstrates an important step needed for the creation of computer processors that crunch numbers by exploiting the weirdness of quantum physics. If successfully developed, quantum computers could effectively take shortcuts through many calculations that are difficult for today's computers.

IBM's new chip is the first to integrate the basic devices needed to build a quantum computer, known as qubits, into a 2-D grid. Researchers think one of the best routes to making a practical quantum computer would involve creating grids of hundreds or thousands of qubits working together. The circuits of IBM's chip are made from metals that become superconducting when cooled to extremely low temperatures. The chip operates at only a fraction of a degree above absolute zero.

IBM's chip contains only the simplest grid possible, four qubits in a two-by-two array. But previously researchers had only shown they could operate qubits together when arranged in a line. Unlike conventional binary bits, a qubit can enter a "superposition state" where it is effectively both 0 and 1 at the same time. When qubits in this state work together, they can cut through complex calculations in ways impossible for conventional hardware. Google, NASA, Microsoft, IBM, and the U.S. government are all working on the technology.

Nature Communications: Demonstration of a quantum error detection code using a square lattice of four superconducting qubits

 
This discussion has been archived.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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @03:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @03:30PM (#177485)

    It is more like massively parallel. You can try all the combinations to the lock instantly...

    If anyone suggests they've found a shortcut in math they are usually full of shit.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday May 01 2015, @03:56PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday May 01 2015, @03:56PM (#177492) Journal

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing [wikipedia.org]

    Large-scale quantum computers will be able to solve certain problems much more quickly than any classical computers that use even the best currently known algorithms, like integer factorization using Shor's algorithm or the simulation of quantum many-body systems. There exist quantum algorithms, such as Simon's algorithm, that run faster than any possible probabilistic classical algorithm.[8] Given sufficient computational resources, however, a classical computer could be made to simulate any quantum algorithm, as quantum computation does not violate the Church–Turing thesis.

    Besides factorization and discrete logarithms, quantum algorithms offering a more than polynomial speedup over the best known classical algorithm have been found for several problems,[18] including the simulation of quantum physical processes from chemistry and solid state physics, the approximation of Jones polynomials, and solving Pell's equation. No mathematical proof has been found that shows that an equally fast classical algorithm cannot be discovered, although this is considered unlikely. For some problems, quantum computers offer a polynomial speedup. The most well-known example of this is quantum database search, which can be solved by Grover's algorithm using quadratically fewer queries to the database than are required by classical algorithms. In this case the advantage is provable. Several other examples of provable quantum speedups for query problems have subsequently been discovered, such as for finding collisions in two-to-one functions and evaluating NAND trees.

    Since chemistry and nanotechnology rely on understanding quantum systems, and such systems are impossible to simulate in an efficient manner classically, many believe quantum simulation will be one of the most important applications of quantum computing.[20] Quantum simulation could also be used to simulate the behavior of atoms and particles at unusual conditions such as the reactions inside a collider.[21]

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by mtrycz on Friday May 01 2015, @04:54PM

      by mtrycz (60) on Friday May 01 2015, @04:54PM (#177514)

      Thanks.

      One thing I can't decipher is "polynomial speedup". Does this mean that O(2^n) becomes something like O(n^x) for some x, or does that mean that O(n^x) becomes O(n^(x-c)), hence possibly O(n^2) -> O(n).

      Or something else entirely?

      --
      In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
    • (Score: 1) by dak664 on Friday May 01 2015, @06:32PM

      by dak664 (2433) on Friday May 01 2015, @06:32PM (#177559)

      Well that's the idea. But it seems to me the discussion of computation time is lacking; adjacent qubits have to superimpose over some time scale before settling into the answer, and that answer is statistical to boot.

      An excited nucleus is basically a qubit(?) and it can take years or centuries to beta decay when coupling to the continuum.