[chris-h]

Quantum computer to be revealed next week

Twenty years before it was expected
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37536
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/ind ... agtype=all

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08 February 2007
Quantum computer to debut next week

By Peter Judge, Techworld

Twenty years before most scientists expected it, a commercial company has announced a quantum computer that promises to massively speed up searches and optimization calculations.

D-Wave of British Columbia has promised to demonstrate a quantum computer next Tuesday,

[mekrob]

When can I get one? I can't wait to play Doom 3.

[AirlinePilot]

Standby for SkyNet to take over....or maybe even Joshua!

Want to play a game?

[Ayame]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'W')hen can I get one? I can't wait to play Doom 3.

[Prince]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f it has managed to do it, the computer could make current security systems obsolete as a quantum computer can crack any current cryptography scheme by providing an unlimited amount of simultaneous processing resources.

[PolestaR]

A 400 Kilowatt simple calculator, niiice.

Bet it won't be fast at all, and consume major juice.

[cynicalheretic]

Actually it will run incredibly fast, until somebody stupidly installs vista on it

[gampy]

Cool...here is a blurb describing how it works.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he aggressiveness of D-Wave's timetable is made possible by the simplicity of its device's design: an analog chip made of low-temperature superconductors. The chip must be cooled to -269 °C with liquid helium, but it doesn't require the delicate state-of-the-art lasers, vacuum pumps, and other exotic machinery that other quantum computers need.

The design is also amenable to the lithography techniques used to make standard computer chips, further simplifying fabrication. D-Wave patterns an array of loops of low-temperature superconductors such as aluminum and niobium onto a chip. When electricity flows through them, the loops act like tiny magnets. Two refrigerator magnets will naturally flip so that they stick together, minimizing the energy between them. The loops in D-Wave's chip behave similarly, "flipping" the direction of current flow from clockwise to counterclockwise to minimize the magnetic flux between them. Depending on the problem it's meant to tackle, the chip is programmed so that current flows through each loop in a particular direction. The loops then spontaneously flip until they reach a stable energy state, which represents the solution to the problem.

[chris-h]

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly ... 93,00.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he trade-off is that an AQC solves only one problem. It takes any set of inputs and settles into the one state that solves that problem for those inputs. Orion solves a theoretical magnetic field problem, called the two-dimensional Ising model, which would take exponential amounts of time on a normal computer. It can solve more useful problems, such as protein folding and financial optimisation, after a conventional computer translates them into the Ising model.

With 16 qubits, it won't do anything a conventional computer can't, but D-Wave hopes to add qubits quickly if the unproven technology works. "The jury is out," says Lloyd. "It's a long shot, but they've gone about it in the best possible way: they've said 'Let's build it and see'."

[gampy]

Some controversy surrounding the debut of the machine.

From CBC:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007 ... 70215.html

Apparently, the makers of the device are not sure themselves if it actually computes "quantumly".