quantumcomputing
Latest
Scientists manipulate electron, this time everyone wins
Notoriously difficult to pin down, electrons have always been free spirits -- until now that is. According to a paper published by science journal Nature, folk at Cambridge University much cleverer than we have tamed single electrons, succeeding in coaxing them directly from point-to-point. The technique involves creating a small hole in gallium arsenide, called a "quantum dot," then creating a channel of energy higher than the neighboring electrons to shuttle cargo off to another empty "dot." Why should you care? Well, while you might not see this technology in the next smartphone, it should give quantum computing a bit of a nudge forward, smoothing the rate of information transfer. If the concept works out, it'll improve the way qubits move around those sub-atomic circuits, where jumping around like a frog in a sock is generally considered bad form. [Image courtesy of the io9]
Researchers wed quantum processor with quantum memory, quaziness ensues
Quantum computing has a long way to go before becoming truly mainstream, but that certainly hasn't stopped us from indulging in dreams of a qubit-based existence. The latest bit of fantasy fodder comes from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where researchers have become the first to combine a quantum processor with memory mechanisms on a single chip. To do this, Matteo Mariantoni and his team of scientists connected two qubits with a quantum bus and linked each of them to a memory element, capable of storing their current values in the same way that RAM stores data on conventional computers. These qubit-memory links also contained arrays of resonators -- jagged, yet easily controlled circuits that can store values for shorter periods of time. The qubits, meanwhile, were constructed using superconducting circuits, allowing the UCSB team to nestle their qubits even closer together, in accordance with the von Neumann architecture that governs most commercial computers. Once everything was in place, the researchers used their system to run complex algorithms and operations that could be eventually used to decode data encryption. The next step, of course, is to scale up the design, though Mariantoni says that shouldn't be too much of a problem, thanks to his system's resonators -- which, according to him, "represent the future of quantum computing with integrated circuits."
Ultra-pure material lets electrons discover each other on the quantum dance floor
These guys aren't Purdue University professors, they're DJs. That thing on the left? It isn't a high-mobility gallium-arsenide molecular beam epitaxy system, it's their decks. It creates an ultra-pure material so perfectly latticed that it traps electrons between its layers and stops them bouncing around like drunken fools at the high school prom. By squeezing them ever so tightly, it lulls the particles into an "exotic" slow dance, at which point they become "aware" of each other and start performing correlated motions that are essential for quantum computing. That's a still a long way off, but if one day we find ourselves affixing gallium arsenide swabs to our quantum motherboards, we'll raise our lighters in the air. Informative PR after the break.
D-Wave sells first commercial quantum computer to Lockheed Martin
Who found ten million dollars to drop on the first commercially available quantum computer? Lockheed Martin, it seems, as the aerospace defense contractor has just begun a "multi-year contract" with the quantum annealing experts at D-Wave to develop... nothing that they're ready or willing to publicly discuss at this time. This "strategic relationship" marks the second major vote of confidence in D-Wave's technology, after Google built image detection algorithms for the company's processors a couple years back. Or, perhaps Lockheed Martin just wants a new shiny black toy for the Skunk Works labs. PR after the break.
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.
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.
UK research team brings quantum computing closer than ever... or so they say
You know the drill -- some quirky research team whips up some phenomenal discovery in the middle of nowhere, gloats about it, gets it published in a journal you've never heard of it, and then it all vanishes into the ether, leaving your soul hurt and wondering why you ever got your hopes up in the first place. The Foundations wrote a little tune about this very situation back in 1968, but a UK team from the Center for Quantum Photonics led by Jeremy O'Brien are claiming that their latest discovery is no joke. According to him, most people have believed that a functional quantum computer wouldn't be a reality for at least another score, but he's saying "with real confidence that, using [his] new technique, a quantum computer could, within five years, be performing calculations that are outside the capabilities of conventional computers." The center of this bold claim is a new photonic chip that works on light rather than traditional electricity, and those who built it say that it could "pull important information out of the biggest databases almost instantaneously." Of course, this stuff would hit the Department of Defense long before it hits your basement, but it's on you to keep tabs on the progress. Wouldn't be let down again, now would we?
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.
German physicists working on quantum interface between light and atoms
Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany are developing something which they call the Mainz interface, and which could eventually lead to a quantum computer -- a whole new way of communicating information. For now, though the Mainz interface is seeking to use laser light traveling through a tapered glass fiber, trapping cesium atoms at the thin center. This center of the fiber is actually thinner than the wavelength of light, meaning that it protrudes into the space surrounding the fiber, "coupling" with the atoms trapped there. Sounds pretty complicated, right? Well, it is, but the researchers are moving along toward the goal of quantum computing. We'll keep you updated on their progress.
Google working with D-Wave on what may or may not be quantum computing
When we first mentioned D-Wave way back in early 2007 we immediately compared it to Steorn -- less than optimal beginnings. The company was promising quantum computing for the masses and, while it did demonstrate a machine that exhibited qubit-like behavior, the company never really silenced critics who believed the underpinnings of the machine were rather more binary in nature. Those disbelievers are surely shutting up now, with word hitting the street that Google has signed on, building new image search algorithms that run on D-Wave's C4 Chimera chip. The first task was to learn to spot automobiles in pictures, something that the quantum machine apparently learned to do simply by looking at other pictures of cars. It all sounds rather neural-networkish to us, but don't let our fuzzy logic cloud your excitement over the prospect of honest to gosh commercial quantum computing.
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]
First functional quantum processor created, lasted slightly longer than your last Xbox 360
UK researchers said they were getting close earlier this year, but in one brilliant fraction of a second a gaggle of Yalies beat those limeys to the punch, with a team led by Robert Schoelkopf, a professor of Applied Physics at Yale, creating what's being hailed as the first quantum processor to actually perform calculations. It's composed of aluminum atoms grouped together to form two quantum bits, communicating over an unimaginatively named named quantum bus that enables one to change the (wait for it) quantum state of the other. This first qubit shifter was able to maintain state for 1,000 times longer than any previous qubit ever produced -- but since its predecessors could only manage a nanosecond's worth of cognition we're still only talking a microsecond here. In other words: there's still a long way to go before you'll be slotting one of these into your gaming rig.
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.
Another breakthrough purportedly brings us closer to quantum computing
In reality, quite a bit of time has passed since we've heard of the next great leap in the (seemingly) never-ending journey towards quantum computing, but we're incredibly relieved to learn that at least someone is still out there, somewhere, pressing on. An international team of researchers have reportedly shown that they can "control the quantum state of a single electron in a silicon transistor, even putting the electron in two places at once." Essentially, the team is using tiny semiconductor transistors to "control the state of a quantum system," but there is still a long ways to go before any of this is meaningful. The crew managed to discover a few things by chance, yet to create a quantum computer, they would need to "position atoms of arsenic (or some other material) in the transistors more reliably." For those of you way too geeked out, fret not -- we'll let you know when all of this technobabble finally amounts to something.[Thanks, Chris]
Researchers create light-based quantum circuit that does math
It looks like quantum computing could now be one step closer to some form of practicality, as a team of researchers from the University of Queensland have announced that they've created a light-based quantum circuit that's capable of performing basic calculations. According to ZDNET Australia, that was done by using a laser to send "entangled" photons through a linear optical circuit, which allowed them to create a circuit consisting of four "qubits," (or quantum bits, pictured at right), which in turn allowed them to calculate the prime roots of fifteen, three and five. Somewhat interestingly, the university's research is funded in part by none other than DARPA, which the researchers themselves admit may be due to the technology's potential for cracking otherwise uncrackable codes. [Via Slashdot, image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]
Researchers develop semiconductor for manipulating electron spin
Quantum computing isn't exactly synonymous with mainstream (yet), but a team of engineers at the University at Buffalo are looking to overcome some of the most prominent hurdles "that have prevented progress toward spintronics and spin-based quantum computing." Apparently, these gurus have conjured up a semiconductor that "provides a novel way to trap, detect and manipulate electron spin," the latter of which is the most notable. Essentially, the UB group's scheme could open up "new paradigms of nanoelectronics," and it manages to stand out from prior efforts by requiring fewer logic gates and promising to operate in much warmer (20-degrees Kelvin versus 1-degree Kelvin) conditions. Now that they've figured out how to dictate single spin, the subsequent step would be to "trap and detect two or more spins that can communicate with each other" -- you know, a vital precondition for quantum computing.[Thanks, Jordan]
Researchers using pulses of light to quickly decipher codes
While we imagine most Wolverines are focusing their efforts on gathering up the requisite tailgating gear for the onset of fall, a team of researchers at the University of Michigan are busy finding ways to decipher encryption codes "within seconds." The crew has apparently discovered that by "using pulses of light to dramatically accelerate quantum computers," these systems could not only crack "highly encrypted codes" in moments versus years, but it could also "lead to tougher protection of [sensitive] information." Additionally, the findings rely on "quantum dots and readily available, relatively inexpensive optical telecommunications technology to drive quantum computers," which could lead to quicker implementation of quantum level applications. Hackers, meet your dream machine.[Via TGDaily, image courtesy of Technovelgy]
