[news] BBC News: Quantum computing is finally here...

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Or is it...?

 

Very interesting article either way.

 

BBC News - D-Wave: Is $15m machine a glimpse of future computing?

[featured_spectre]

I object to the article...it claims it is 150 times colder than the vacuum of space....the vacuum of space is 3 degrees Kelvin. 0 Degrees kelvin is absolute kelvin is about as cold as it will get according to science....not sure what temperature these guys are hitting for it too be 150 times colder than 3 Degrees K

[tmcd35]

I object to the article...it claims it is 150 times colder than the vacuum of space....the vacuum of space is 3 degrees Kelvin. 0 Degrees kelvin is absolute kelvin is about as cold as it will get according to science....not sure what temperature these guys are hitting for it too be 150 times colder than 3 Degrees K

 

Obviously not using the Kelvin scale then What's the relative tempurature in Celsius or Farenheit?

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I object to the article...it claims it is 150 times colder than the vacuum of space....the vacuum of space is 3 degrees Kelvin. 0 Degrees kelvin is absolute kelvin is about as cold as it will get according to science....not sure what temperature these guys are hitting for it too be 150 times colder than 3 Degrees K

 

Keep reading... It's cooled to 20 miliKelvin or 0.02 Kelvin. That's precisely 150 times less than 3k (in celcius that's -273.13 Degrees).

[sparkeh]

I object to the article...it claims it is 150 times colder than the vacuum of space....the vacuum of space is 3 degrees Kelvin. 0 Degrees kelvin is absolute kelvin is about as cold as it will get according to science....not sure what temperature these guys are hitting for it too be 150 times colder than 3 Degrees K

The article tells us the temperature:

"At a high level, we know what the machine is doing: namely, it's doing annealing to the ground state, with superconducting Josephson junctions (paired superconductors) at 20mK (milliKelvin) temperature, in a way that's 'mostly classical' but that has some quantum effects present, at least at the local level," says Prof Aaronson.

edit: whoops mistyped this

Edited May 20, 2014 by sparkeh

[featured_spectre]

The article tells us the temperature:

 

Also gotta question your statement that 0 degress K is as cold as it gets. The coldest temperature we have produced is 100pK:

Orders of magnitude (temperature) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

100pK is still warmer than 0K...

 

and I agree, it would help if I finish reading the article. I miscalculated is all!

[abillybob]

I thought Apple would be the first to come out with a Quantum Mac... because y'know... they're innovative and everything they do is perfect...

 

Also the main question I want to ask is can this run Crysis on full settings?

Edited May 20, 2014 by abillybob

[featured_spectre]

Also the main question I want to ask is can this run Crysis on full settings?

 

Wow..don't over estimate its ability!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

funny

 

Seriously though, we're talking quantum supercomputers here, we're a generation away from personal computing.

[sparkeh]

100pK is still warmer than 0K...

Oops yeah, typing in a hurry

[tmcd35]

funny

 

Seriously though, we're talking quantum supercomputers here, we're a generation away from personal computing.

 

A laptop cooled to 20miliKelvin. Makes a change from the heat burns of todays models

[ICTDirect_Dave]

A laptop cooled to 20miliKelvin. Makes a change from the heat burns of todays models

 

Haha! Could you imagine the freezer burn instead?!

[abillybob]

A laptop cooled to 20miliKelvin. Makes a change from the heat burns of todays models

 

I'm pretty sure with cooling systems like that if you implemented them in any desktop/laptop the room the user is in would be extremely cold and may even kill them. They could always use a type of liquid cooling I guess but at the moment I'm pretty sure all we can possibly use are fans. I don't know the actual way they are cooling the computer in question but I guess that's going to be one of the hardest tasks to achieve.

@ICTDirect_Dave, I could be wrong I'm no expert but I'd guess for hardware like this to be placed into a laptop form factor you're looking at a few hundred years away! Plus why would a end user benefit from using a Quantum computer to load up excel and do a spreadsheet! I'd be amazed if they ever release Quantum computing to the public it will probably be used as major servers in Google, Weather Analysis and Scientific Projects, I think it's highly unlikely we will ever see a quantum computer on the shelves to buy!

[sonofsanta]

There's been a lot of back and forth over the D-Wave machines, as they're very secretive about how it works, but the general consensus is that it isn't a quantum computer in the full sense of that term, but a computer taking advantage of certain quantum properties (as the article says). It's also not necessarily any better than a classical computer.

[tmcd35]

I could be wrong I'm no expert but I'd guess for hardware like this to be placed into a laptop form factor you're looking at a few hundred years away!

 

If you explained the iPad to someone in 1975 (when the Altair 8080 was released) I'm sure they would have said the same. It's been barely 4 decades!

 

 

A bigger question - is there actually any evidence quantum computing will speed up computations over traditional binary? Skim reading the article suggest their implementations doesn't. So what's the point?

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Says in the article that they're using liquid helium. That's some pretty chilly stuff!

 

I disagree about personal quantum machines though. With the pace of change and development we're seeing, plus the problems we're going to face with making ever smaller transistors on silicone chips and the damage they'll take from the heat they generate, I think QCs are the next step. Of course it'll be used in supercomputers first, and then it'll trickle down to the comsumer, that's how it's always been. Everything's going to be in the cloud anyway so it's likely we'll use terminals to access quantum networks and computing power remotely without ever needing more than the most basic device at home.

[sparkeh]

Isn't the point about Quantum Computers that they could provide huge benefits for a particular type of problem, they are not proposed, currently, as a replacement for classical computing?

[ICTDirect_Dave]

There's been a lot of back and forth over the D-Wave machines, as they're very secretive about how it works, but the general consensus is that it isn't a quantum computer in the full sense of that term, but a computer taking advantage of certain quantum properties (as the article says). It's also not necessarily any better than a classical computer.

 

Agreed, they're kind of cheating their way through this. However there are one or two applications where their methods produce better results, but not as many as a $15,000,000 price tag should deliver.

 

If you explained the iPad to someone in 1975 (when the Altair 8080 was released) I'm sure they would have said the same. It's been barely 4 decades!

 

 

A bigger question - is there actually any evidence quantum computing will speed up computations over traditional binary? Skim reading the article suggest their implementations doesn't. So what's the point?

 

This!

 

iPad-like devices weren't even thought of in science fiction until fairly recently.

 

This version of Q Computing doesn't offer many advantages, they're just building something that's possible currently. Using the far more complicated (not to mention unstable) Quantum Logic Gate architecture should give a massive performance boost over traditional methods. But that's still some way beyond us.

[sted]

iPad-like devices weren't even thought of in science fiction until fairly recently.

 

define fairly recently. They had a tablet like device with rounded corners in tng which is getting on for 30 ago

[sonofsanta]

Also, the real purpose of quantum computing, when it gets here, will be encryption - and, of course, decryption. All our current classical algorithms would be made useless overnight once a true quantum computer arrived, as it could arrive at the answer immediately without having to spend 40 years trying every possible combination first, as a classical computer would. It should come as no surprise that the NSA are funding research in this area.

 

Quantum Key Distribution is essentially uncrackable though, if not practical as an SSL replacement (QKD has to operate point-to-point, so you need QC everywhere). Lots of fascinating (and incredibly hard for my brain to understand) research detailed over at Ars again.

[abillybob]

Says in the article that they're using liquid helium. That's some pretty chilly stuff!

 

I disagree about personal quantum machines though. With the pace of change and development we're seeing, plus the problems we're going to face with making ever smaller transistors on silicone chips and the damage they'll take from the heat they generate, I think QCs are the next step. Everything's going to be in the cloud anyway

 

Still none has answered the question about how a consumer version of a Quantum Computer could ever benefit your general user or even power users such as us for example... it won't unless Microsoft one day decide to bring our a Quantum processor only OS or something similar there would be no need and it would be overkill. It would be very rare you could find use of a QC at a personal user level.

Gaming could be a huge leap forward in the way the QC's can judge physics etc... it could be a revelation but for your general office work (which most computers are used for) they'd be no purpose.

 

I also disagree with your cloud comment, I certainly never store any information in the cloud I don't trust any other bugger with my important data and instead host my own cloud on a server at home, I don't think cloud storage is any good imo and I'm sure there are a lot of people that wouldn't want to store all info in the cloud like myself either!

I will eat my own hat if in the next years in my life time they sell a full functioning QC to personal users and price it competitively with standard machines today. If it ever comes out remember this time and I will happily upload a picture of me eating a hat until thenI don't ever think this could or will happen.

 

Not in our lifetime anyway...

[tmcd35]

Isn't the point about Quantum Computers that they could provide huge benefits for a particular type of problem, they are not proposed, currently, as a replacement for classical computing?

 

I thought it was being heavily researched into as a possibility though. Intel are banging up against the limite of Moores Law as we speak. They're also running short on exotic minerals they can replace silicon with. Another couple of decades at most and classical microprocessors aren't going to be able to get any faster.

[sonofsanta]

Intel are banging up against the limite of Moores Law as we speak. They're also running short on exotic minerals they can replace silicon with.

 

I think graphene is the great hope there, isn't it? They're slowly finding new ways of making it with normal household items - sticky tape, fairy liquid in a blender...

[pcstru]

Also, the real purpose of quantum computing, when it gets here, will be encryption - and, of course, decryption. All our current classical algorithms would be made useless overnight once a true quantum computer arrived, as it could arrive at the answer immediately without having to spend 40 years trying every possible combination first, as a classical computer would.

Not true. A one time pad is unbreakable, there is no way in theory to 'break' the encryption, no matter how powerful your computer.

[sonofsanta]

Not true. A one time pad is unbreakable, there is no way in theory to 'break' the encryption, no matter how powerful your computer.

 

Fair point, but one time pads for Facebook would be a bit laborious