D-Wave says they'll have a quantum computer ready by 2008
posted June 23rd 2005 11:42AM
If you think about it, a computer only needs to measure the change of state to, well, compute — be it ones and zeros or the state of subatomic particles. That's why there is such interest in the development of the mythical quantum computer (think supercomputer in a teaspoon). For the most part, efforts in quantum computer development have focused on a property called entanglement. But Vancouver startup D-Wave is focusing on quantum tunneling instead and hope to exploit this to develop a quantum computer within three-years (with a prototype by close of 2006). At the heart of their "less than fully functional" quantum computer is an analogue chip which must be cooled with liquid helium to -269 °C — just 4 °C shy of absolute zero folks! However, these purpose-built semiconductors rely on existing fabrication techniques and do not need the gee-whiz guts (delicate lasers, vacuum pumps) required by other quantum computers. While cryptographers will have to wait for their dream machine, intractable problems such as the infamous traveling-salesman (optimal route among cities) and optimization of financial portfolios and traditional computer chip layouts could be quickly sorted. Don't bother raiding the kid's college fund yet 'cause D-Wave expects to sell computational services not quantum hardware.
"an analogue chip which must be cooled with liquid helium"
So now your grocery list will look something like this:
Mike
Eggs
Coffee
Helium tank for computer
They have liquid helium!?! I'm going to make a drink with that in it so people sound like the chipmonks! I'll make Billions!
Bullshit! they can't do it. Yet another fancy proposal researches have to make nowadays just to get funding.
QC needs a theoretical breakthrough, to become a reality, and such things are very unpredictable.
Travelling salesmen problems and financial portfolo optimisation are all very nice, but I'm waiting for the quantum computer to prove or disprove the "many universes" hypothesis. Basically, if you set a quantum computer a problem that even it shouldn't be able to solve in millions of years, and it solves it in a reasonable time, the only way it could have done so was through entanglement with nearby universes that are close (but not identical) to our own. This would be compelling proof of the idea that the universe splits into two or more copies at every decision point. Then all I'd have to do is build a machine that will let me transport myself to a universe that evolved the concept of free beer. Hey, its a plan!
I wonder if this will be in Playstation 4?
oh and if u drink the stuff, your jaw will probably fall off.
So by then LongHorn will be able to crash much much faster.
#2,
I wonder if you could use Helium as a carbonation element in soft drinks? The 7-16 year old market would go bonkers for a drink that could make them sound like that. Totally off topic...I know.
This entry was ripped almost verbatim from a scientfic american article, either that or popular science, i can't remember which but I know this is close to copy and paste.
Oooh!!1 great so when's quantic time travelling for?
#8 (Abe) be careful how you word you claims of plagiarization - certainly the entry, which I wrote, is not. Perhaps you mean the linked article in Technology Review in which case you should offer the original source.
Quantum computers have the power to break nearly every encryption in seconds... free cable anyone? Not to mention simulate every natural phenomena... the whether forecast will actually be right!
Quantum computers will rock the world when they could be used in room temperature