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U of Michigan creates first Quantum Microchip
zigziggityzoo writes "According to this article, The University of Michigan has created the first Quantum Microchip, which could eventually lead to the first instance of Quantum Computing ever." The bad news? We won't be seeing any notebooks or handhelds with quantum chips in the near future.
1: As a proof of concept, it's a good start. I was always rather unsure how practical all this QC stuff actually was, as although the benefits look great, the technology seems to be incredibly complex.
2: It's a nice slap in the face for the various people who still doubt the validity of quantum theory itself. The fact that this is possible shows it's definately on the right lines.
I'm GLAD it won't happen soon! Imagine someone tapping into your SSL sessions with his quantum chip!
Besides, i'm much more interested in optical or spin-based chips with nearly zero-power-consumption than a quantum entanglement chip.
They have no idea what this will lead to. Remember research 50 years ago? Huge, vacuum tubes, hundreds of calculations a second (maybe). They thought the world would have maybe 5-10 computers. Who envisioned Doom, or the Internet?
Same way with quantum computing. Right now we have very primitive experimental technology and think a few researchers might eventually benefit. I'd like to see what we're doing in 50-100 years.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
When (if) a quantum computer can eventually be made, it'll probably have more then enough power to crack many of the currently used encryption schemes. Such a big jump in computing ability (from that little I've read about quantum computing and my roommates ranting, it's that powerful) will definately present a problem for security schemes. Things may get interesting then......
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
No, qbits arent bits.
Since reading a "register" destroys the coherent stats and leads to one (of the many possible) readings, you cannot use most algorithms with quantum chips.
There are only a handful algorithms yet that work theoretically at all (like the famous shore-algorithm to factorize numbers). As a easy guideline, the "you can calculate all possible combinations at once" idea of quantum computing is destroyed for most stuff because of the reading limitations.
So the way to go is trying to find algorithms in which the end result of the quantum register will give a bias in the readout that will give you a hint for the properties of a large manyfold of input factors.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
It's not very nice to highlight his name. If he's designing quantum computers, he either had a dislexic moment or got misquoted. My guess is the latter.
Tharkban (It is a signature after all)
From the very article you linked:
The class of problems that can be efficiently solved by quantum computers is called BQP, for "bounded error, quantum, polynomial time". Quantum computers only run randomized algorithms, so BQP on quantum computers is the counterpart of BPP on classical computers.
I don't know how much of a background you have in Computational Mathematics, but the gist of it is that the properties that make a quantum computer very, very good at things like encryption make them very, very bad at everyday, deterministic stuff like desktop computing.