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D-Wave One claims mantle of first commercial quantum computer
Whether or not D-Wave has actually built a quantum computer is still a matter of debate (though, a study authored by the company and published in Nature claims to prove its success) but, whatever it is these crafty Canadians have created, you can order one now and start crunching qubits with abandon. The D-Wave One is the first commercially available quantum computer and, while its 128-qubit processor can only handle very specific tasks and is easily outperformed by traditional CPUs, it could represent a revolution in the field of supercomputing. As D-Wave scales up to thousands or tens-of-thousands of qubits, complex number theory problems and advanced cryptographic systems could crumble before the mighty power of quantum annealing... or at least give us faster Google searches. Just out of curiosity, we contacted D-Wave to see how much we'd have to cough up for a quantum desktop of our own, but we've yet to hear back. Update: Joseph passed along an e-mail from the company with a little more information, including a price: $10,000,000. Yep, ten large, and we're not sure that includes the liquid helium required to keep it cooled.
Researchers show off scalable architecture for quantum computing, expand our minds
Okay, so we might be chasing the flying unicorn of modern technology here -- and, no, we're not talking about the white iPhone 4 -- but as you've probably noticed, our hunger for a quantum computer is basically insatiable. Lucky for us, some folks who actually know something about producing qubits are similarly persistent -- a team of researchers recently presented a scalable quantum chip at a meeting of the American Physical Society in good old Texas. The 6 x 6-cm processor sports four qubits, the basic units of quantum computing, and its creators say it has the potential to be scaled up to support 10 of the things within the year. So what does that mean for our quest for the ultimate super computer? Well, it means we're closer than we used to be... and the dream lives on.
Scientists create 10 billion qubits in silicon, get us closer than ever to quantum computing
We are totally ready for a quantum computer. Browse the dusty Engadget archives and you'll find many posts about the things, each charting another step along the way to our supposed quantum future. Here's another step, one that we think is a pretty big one. An international team of scientists has managed to generate 10 billion quantum entangled bits, the basic building block of a quantum computer, and embed them all in silicon which is, of course, the basic building block of a boring computer. It sounds like there's still some work to be done to enable the team to actually modify and read the states of those qubits, and probably a decade's worth of thumb-twiddling before they let any of us try to run Crysis on it, but yet another step has been made. [Image credit: Smite-Meister]
Caltech research could lead to quantum hard drives, networks, parallel universes
Quantum anything has typically fallen into our oft-used category of 'awesome things that'll never happen,' but if a crew of researchers at the California Institute of Technology have anything to say about it, they'll soon be changing the fortunes of that segment. The team has recently demonstrated quantum entanglement for a quantum state stored in four spatially distinct atomic memories, and while that probably just blew your mind a little bit, the breakdown is fairly interesting. Essentially, they've uncovered a quantum interface between the atomic memories, which is said to "represent something akin to a computer hard drive for entanglement." If extended, it could pave the way toward quantum networks, and in turn, massive webs of quantum computers. We're obviously decades out from understanding what this all means for the common computer user, but just remember this: "for an entangled quantum system, there exists no objective physical reality for the system's properties." And you thought The Matrix was deep.
Dark excitons could light up your quantum computer, life
Yeah, we're still hanging around playing Q*bert and waiting on folks to get those qubits a spinning. Meanwhile, researchers have found a new path to follow on the way to quantum enlightenment. A new, darker path, which entails the use of so-called dark excitons as quantum bits. While doubling as a great name for future robo-gigolos, a dark exciton is an electron-hole pair with parallel spins. The parallel spin, which makes this quasiparticle "dark," also enables it to be long-lasting and, critically, to be excited with an electrical charge to set its state, a state that can then be read by looking for an emitted photon. Fascinating? Absolutely. Coming to a desktop near you? Not likely -- not unless your desktop is kept at a temperature of 4.2K, anyway. [Image credit: Smite-Meister]
Researchers develop means to reliably read an electron's spin, take us one step closer to the quantum zone
Another day, another step bringing us closer to the next big revolution in the world of computing: replacing your transistory bits with qubits. Researchers at Australia's Universities of New South Wales and of Melbourne, along with Finland's Aalto University, have achieved the impossibly tiny goal of reliably reading the spin of a single electron. That may not sound like much, but let's just see you do it quickly without affecting said spin. This particular implementation relies on single atoms of phosphorus embedded in silicon. Yes, silicon, meaning this type of qubit is rather more conventional than others we've read about. Of course, proper quantum computers depend on reading and writing the spin of individual electrons, so as of now we effectively have quantum ROM. When will that be quantum RAM? They're still working on that bit.
Quantum refrigerator could cool your quantum computer, allow for quantum overclocking
The quantum computer is still ranking pretty high up there on the vaporware charts, somewhere between Duke Nukem Forever and a Steorn in-home power generator. Eventually we'll get there, and theoretical physicists at the University of Bristol are helping with a quantum cooling system. It is effectively a means for two qubits to cool a third, with the outer two cooled by lasers and absorbing energy from the third, which is heated to its excited state. Unsurprisingly this is all rather theoretical at this point, but the team does plan to actually build such a quantum refrigerator in the not too distant future. Then, we figure, they'll host the first quantum kegger.
Electromagnetically induced transparency could create a quantum internet, quantum memes
The transistor ushered the modern world of gadgets that we all love, and now optical transistors could help to bring us to the proper next generation of the internet. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have demonstrated successful electromagnetically induced transparency, or EIT, which is effectively a way of enabling one beam of light to control another. In their experiments, researchers used a rubidium atom to indicate state, blocking a beam of light in one direction but, when a laser hit it at a perpendicular angle, turning it transparent to allow the first beam through. The idea is that this could serve as a sort of optical gate for quantum computers; the building block of a next-gen internet for next-gen devices. There's reason for excitement about the potential here, but researchers have a long, long way to go before anything like this is ready for reality, so don't give up those handlinks just yet.
Quantum computer chips get infinitesimally closer to happening
We've already seen at least one (sort of) functional quantum processor, and one breakthrough after the other in quantum computing, but it looks like some researchers at Ohio State University have now made a breakthrough of their own that could possibly speed things up considerably. The big news there is that they've apparently found a way to fabricate a quantum device called a resonant interband tunneling diode (or RITD) using a chip-making technique called "vapor desposition," which is commonly used today for traditional chips. While there's still quite a bit of perfecting to be done on the device itself, lead researcher Paul Berger says the RTIDs could be used for ultra-low-power computer chips that operate with small voltages and produce less excess heat, and may even allow for ultra high-resolution imaging devices that can "operate at wavelengths beyond the human eye" -- opening up possibilities for everything from advanced medical imaging to the ability to see through rain, snow, fog and dust storms.[Via Physorg]
UK researchers take us one step closer to quantum computing
You know, at some point we're going to grow tired of just getting closer and demand that we arrive, but thankfully for a smattering of UK-based researchers, we're not yet to that point. Reportedly, brainiacs from Edinburgh and Manchester University have created a molecular machine that could be used to develop quantum computers for making "intricate calculations" far more quickly than current supercomputers. Essentially, these gurus relied on molecular scale technology instead of silicon chips; more specifically, they achieved the so-called breakthrough by "combining tiny magnets with molecular machines that can shuttle between two locations without the use of external force." Not surprisingly, there's still more work to be done, with Professor David Leigh of Edinburgh University noting that "the major challenges we face now are to bring many of these qubits together to build a device that could perform calculations, and to discover how to communicate between them." In other words, check back in 2012.
Scientists take first step in ceramic-based quantum computers
One of the many challenges facing quantum computing is finding a practical material from which to process the quantum information -- the material must not be so exotic such that it becomes too prohibitive and expensive to use for mass calculations. That's why a recently discovered hidden magnetic "quantum order" in ceramic has scientists in such a tizzy. By heating or doping the material with a variety of impurities, scientists from the London Center for Nanotechnology have found a way to propagate magnetic excitations over long chains of atoms in the otherwise magnetically disordered material. Armed then, with the ability to break the chains into independent sub-chains, each with it's own hidden order, scientists have taken the first step towards engineering spin-based quantum states from ceramics. Right, the quantum analogy to those good ol' 1 and 0 state changes used by today's not-so-super computers.[Thanks, Scott S.]
NASA backs quantum computing demonstration
NASA has confirmed that it built a quantum computer under contract for Canadian startup company D-Wave Systems Inc. after D-Wave was accused of faking a recent demonstration to businesses and academia. During a demonstration last month, the company revealed that its 16 qubit (more qubits = more processes) quantum processor had been left back at the company's offices, and therefore the test would be show via an internet link. According to D-Wave CEO Ed Martin, "businesses aren't too fascinated about the details of quantum mechanics": unfortunately, a group of industry experts were interested, and they made their skepticism clear. The result is NASA's confirmation that it did in fact construct D-Wave's quantum processor design under contract; a confirmation that most people will be inclined to accept. The underlying technology shown in the demonstration was the use of a normal digital processor in conjunction with a quantum chip, which D-Wave hopes will enable commercial applications of quantum computing. D-Wave is planning to up its design from 16 qubits to 1,024 qubits by the end of 2008, a rather controversial aim for some that think practical quantum computing is still up to a decade away. There's gotta be something about quantum computing that puts scientists on edge: perhaps it's the platform's potential to make all current forms of encryption obsolete ...[Via Slashdot]
World's first "commercial" quantum computer solves Sudoku
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]
