As
expected, Canada's D-Wave Systems has announced "the world's first commercially viable
quantum computer," and they seem to be pretty stoked about it. The achievement is notable, since they've managed to build a whole 16 qubit computer that actually does some simple computations, even if it's far less powerful than even the most basic of home computers. Qubits are quantum bits that can be in an "on," "off" or "both" state due to fuzzy physics at the atomic level, and up until now the best anyone had done was get three qubits together for computing. This 16-bit version can solve Sudoku, create a complicated seating plan and search for molecular structures, but quantum computers will need to be in the range of thousands of qubits to be able to solve puzzles -- such as encryption -- that current computers cannot. D-Wave is planning to have a 1,000 qubit version ready by the end of next year, but scientists in the field are skeptical. The adiabatic method used by D-Wave, which cools electronic circuits into a superconducting state, with the resulting qubits being slowly varied in a magnetic field, might not be able to keep its speed when on that large of a scale. "It probably won't work but it's not quixotic," says Seth Lloyd of MIT. "If it works then they can solve really hard problems and they'll be very much in demand," he says. But it's a long shot: "It's certainly not the kind of company I'd invest my money in." To raise awareness, D-Wave will be opening the computer up to computational problems over the internet after the results of the project are peer-reviewed. More pics after the break.
[Via
Digg]
posted Feb 14th 2007 2:09PM
I'm sure that right after Sudoku and TicTacToe it will be onto World Hunger, just give it a little while!
now *THATS* a heatsink!!
If each qubit can have 3 states, each would be represented by a trit (0, 1 or 2) not a bit (0 or 1) so technically this is a 16-trit machine
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/trit
No, the article is accurate. It says "16 qubit" where "qu" stands for quantum, thus it is a "quantum bit" and entirely accurate. Besides, how do you get the word "trit"? I don't think that "bit" was spawned from the prefix "bi."
Its not a trit, because while it has 3 states, one of those is not knowing whether its one of the other two. If dead/not dead cats aren't your thing, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qubit
Three states would be -1, 0, and 1
Actually, a qubit can be represented by either a 0, 1, or (0&1). So technically this is a 16-qubit computer.
watch there be a x86 version in the next couple years
AMD athlon 6000+ quantum edition
I think since the 'bit' just represents a spin state, it can be 0, 1, or any range of values in between (eg 0.342321) that is happens to be sitting at or averaging too.
You're wrong there, actually.
Bit is an extreme contraction of Binary digIT.
Here is the video link my friend and I got from this Demo yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQul2asgXbw
There is also some other footage of the other apps they ran
and some interesting quotes.
The strength of a quantum computer is not that each qubit can represent some additional tertiary state (believe it or not, this idea was tried and rejected long ago), but that each qubit is in an indeterminate state where it is both 1 *and* 0. This enables you to explore the entire solution space representable by the number of qubits you have almost instantly, and trounces the best abilities of classical computers on NP-complete problems (for which the solution set increases as some rapidly increasing function of the problem size without a clear way to partition the set). As a computer scientist (in training), I'm pretty shocked that something like this made it out 'under the radar', so to speak; it almost makes me doubt whether it's a true quantum computer, or just a different sort of classical computer.
Psssh. It can't even run the original DOOM.
The basic gist of this Dwave thing:
1) If this experiment had been done at a University and they had published how exactly everything worked, it would indeed have been a pretty big leap in quantum computing. But right now, their computer is a black box. Nobody outside the company can say for sure that this their system really works the way they say it does, or if it is really a quantum computer at all.
2) It's a private company so they probably won't want to publish their secrets for awhile. That means the only way to really verify this thing is if they manage to scale up their system to handle bigger problems. At some point they would be able to prove it's a quantum computer just by solving certain problems faster than any conventional computer around could.
3) From a theoretical standpoint, they've taken an unconventional approach to quantum computing. It might just work, but nobody is sure right now. Once again, it's hard to say given that so little is known about the actual details of their setup.
That is quite possibly one of the coolest things I have ever seen a picture of. Good show D-Wave! I am assuming this is being researched as a viable option because if they can get more of these working together, Quantum Processors will lead to super fast compuing?
Last time I saw that many hand made DB-25 connectors hanging off anything, I was cleaning out the basement of the computer shop I worked in a few years back. And the last time I had seen multiple wires coming from the same connector was an old serial link cable made from two phone cords in the college dorm. Now that was gaming! :p
Very cool pics though.
Shalmaneaser, is that you?
Yes.
Christ, what an imagination I've got!
All hail the infinite improbability drive!
Don't expect to use these for gaming. These are only good for stuff where you can get by with significant error and where you need to do billions of operations at a time. So like cracking encryption, or folding@home type stuff
Did you even READ the article? It plays sudoku you noob!!!!!!
It does exact matching too. Though you could come up with behavior patterns for AI and run it through here and whatever scenario best matches the current situation, the AI would adapt. Think of this as well. How efficient would the game be if it could take your group, compare it to a preset listing of mobs and populate an entire dungeon that's well suited for a challenge to your group? Now let's say another group comes in. The dungeon mobs could all be shifted to provide the best challenge for both groups. There are so many ways to do things in game that don't require exactly knowing the outcome mathematically.
What they don't mention is that it delivered the answer to scientists in a parallel universe.
Their quantum computer delivered its answer to us.
Now they know that we're here - no one is safe.
It does not matter that scientists are skeptical. It does not matter that XYZ would not put money into it. Dwave is already fully funded with tens of millions in VC money from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and others. They have the money that they need to make their next versions easily into next year with their planned 1024 qubit version. Either they make machines that are faster or they do not. By next year it will become very apparent if they are succeeding. Then it will be whether they can solve the kind of problems faster that companies and governments are willing to pay for.
I was at the event and I have been following the developments on my own blog http://advancednano.blogspot.com/search/label/quantum%20computer
Omai, it seems like these 'Quantum' computers are quite a 'leap'.
Buh-dum-pum-tsh!
What a shame they're not a public company. I'd love to buy $50 worth of shares from them on the off-chance of becoming a qubillionnaire in 10 years or so.
Sooo.... to stay with the Japanese and their Sudoku, qubits can be negative (or 0), positive (or 1) and 'Mu'?
- Unomi -
The only things that matter are that it can solve sudoku, and is the SEXIEST PROCESSOR EVER!
Look at it! it's gorgeous!
So the extreme contraction of Ternary digIT is...
Umm... Oh...