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.

Comments

Measurement

[Bob Gelumph]

It is not a first post until someone reads it as a first post

Quantum?

[MoxCamel]

Oh boy.

Mox

The Bad News

[ackthpt]

The bad news? We won't be seeing any notebooks or handhelds with quantum chips in the near future.

Yeah, right. Let me introduce myself, my name is Richard and I am Vice Peon, Assistant to the High Junior Acolyte In Charge of Dustbins of the Holy Order of 8th Day Advanced Micro Devicers. Once we were few in numbers, our faith challenged at every turn by the Church of Intel. Scoffed at, most cruelly as rank copyists without an innovation to our name. After years of wandering the wilderness between iterations our faith was rewarded most gloriously! Speak not of Quantum Notbooks and Handhelds being a thing of dreams, for we know the mighty AMD will deliver.

You'll see, you just watch! Ya betcha! Wrist devices, wearable quantum rings. Any second now. Yeah...

What would Neil say?

[slashbob22]

That's one small chip for man, one Quantum leap for mankind.

Re:What would Neil say?

[Flunitrazepam]

putting right posts that once went wrong, and hoping that the next post..... will be..... the first post

There might be a small problem

[suitepotato]

as you might be able to know where the computer is but not what it is doing or what it is doing but not where it is at the same time...

Re:There might be a small problem

[skiddy]

I think I have a quantum girlfriend :(

Re:There might be a small problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I have a quantum girlfriend :(
The rest of slashdot thinks you have an imaginary girlfriend.

Quantum Pairs

[DigiShaman]

Expect this story to be dupped again. This time, it will be the fault of their new CPU, not Slashdot.

Finally, a dupe excuse for Slashdot!

ah, but with quantum computing

[geekoid]

the dupe could be the first story!

Here's a Question for you:

[SnoopJeDi]

From TFA:

Researchers believe quantum systems will be much more efficient at rock-solid cryptography and mass database searches than running the latest version of Doom.

Any particular reason why? I mean, bits are bits, are they not? Or is this saying a game architechture couldn't take advantage of a qubit?

The Power of Quantum Computers is a good insight into just why this is a good system for factorization, and thus, breaking the stuffing out of encryption systems.

Re:Here's a Question for you:

[imsabbel]

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.

Re:Here's a Question for you:

[centie]

The problem is that there are only a very limited number of quantum algorithms which give a significant increase in performance over classical computing. Infact, there's only really two main classes; those based on Shors quantum fourier transform and those based on Grovers quantum search. So the possibility for exponential (Shor) or quadratic (Grover) performance gains, at the moment, is only available for a very limited number of problems. Not to say that in the future someone wont develope an algorithm which allows doom to be run faster, just at the moment its not known.

For the first replier, qubits do NOT have three states of 1, 0 and 1&0. They are a superposition of 1 and 0. Think of it like a globe with 1 at the north pole and 0 at the south, the value of the qubit can be any point on the surface of the globe. This gives an infinte number of values, not just 3.

Obviously designed for windows

[hurfy]

"For example, an up-spin can represent a one, or a down-spin can represent a zero -- or the qubit can occupy both states simultaneously"

This way windows can be working and not working at the same time.

oh, wait.....

Schrodinger's computer

[Belseth]

If it runs Windows does that mean it can be both in a crashed state and an uncrashed state?

Re:Schrodinger's computer

[jakupovic]

Dude have you thought about replacing yourself, I mean 4 computers can't be wrong

just a thought

Should be just in time...

[optkk]

for the next Duke Nukem Forever.

Re:But will it run Linux?

[Craigj0]

Actually for some people there are reasons to move beyond 64 bits besides address space. There are a lot of processors that are used in DSP that work on >64 bit intergers. However for a general purpose machine proccessing of large intergers is probably better off in specialised units like altivec.
As a side note current 64 bit processors only actually can access about 40-45 bits of address space since all those extra pins cost money and are unlikely to be used.

Mods missed the reference

[jcuervo]

At the end of every (?) episode of Quantum Leap, Sam (Scott Bakula) (and that holographic dude, once or twice) would say "Oh, boy" once he jumped into a new body and realized his new predicament.

Can't believe the mods missed it. :-(

First Ever? It's been done before!

[ironwill96]

I seem to recall that an article was posted on /. a few months ago about this as found here: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/ 07/1241216

And here is the company's webpage: http://atomchip.com/_wsn/page5.html

See! Proof that Quantum-Optical computing has already been done!

Ok, so maybe this would be the first non-vaporware quantum chip...

in a related story

[adrianmonk]

In a related story, after being told that U Mich now has quantum microchips working, Steve Jobs was heard saying, "Crap! FUCK! We just finished switching to Intel chips, and now THIS happens?! Now we're going to have to, I mean this will make us, I mean... DAMMIT! DAMN. IT. Stupid fucking processors -- we should've just stayed with m68k. I mean, what's the point?"