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NASA Backs Quantum Computing Claim

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the but-they-did-not-shoot-the-deputy dept.

narramissic writes "Canadian startup D-Wave's demonstration via Web link of a prototype quantum computer in mid-February was met with skepticism in the academic community, but NASA has confirmed that it did, in fact, build a special chip used in the disputed demonstration. According to an article on ITworld, D-Wave designed the quantum chip and then contracted with NASA to build it."

4 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Does that NASA built a chip mean anything? by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Informative

    Does it mean the chip works, and it actually performs quantum calculations? I see nothing in the TFA where NASA confirms or denys the actual function of the chip, just that they made it based on D-Wave's design.

    I still don't see any proof that anyone computed anything quantumly. How hard is this to prove, anyways, to all the quantum physicists in the house?

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    1. Re:Does that NASA built a chip mean anything? by sco08y · · Score: 5, Informative

      How hard is this to prove, anyways, to all the quantum physicists in the house?

      IANAQP, but I think it's pretty hard to prove given that you can simulate a quantum computer with a classical computer. (Source.)

      But, if you have lots of qbits then you can simply argue that it's running too fast to be a simulation:

      "Take for example a system of only a few hundred qubits, this exists in a Hilbert space of dimension ~1090 that in simulation would require a classical computer to work with exponentially large matrices (to perform calculations on each individual state, which is also represented as a matrix), meaning it would take an exponentially longer time than even a primitive quantum computer." (ibid)

      So I'm thinking that when they get to their 64 or 128 qbit device that we know for certain that it's genuine.

      I wonder how long it'll be before Intel and Motorola are selling quantum computers and arguing about the qbit myth?

    2. Re:Does that NASA built a chip mean anything? by tftp · · Score: 3, Informative

      If they can routinely discover RSA secret keys then you probably don't need a quantum computer to verify that. An Intel 386 box would be enough.

  2. Re:contracted NASA?? by bugnuts · · Score: 3, Informative

    Several government agencies, especially national labs, do lots of civilian work. Often the labs do the basic research, and companies turn it into products at affordable prices.

    If you read TFA, it stated that only certain agencies had the equipment to make and run the chips in the first place.