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First Electronic Quantum Processor Created
ScienceDaily is reporting that the first rudimentary solid-state quantum processor has been created by a team led by Yale University researchers. "Working with a group of theoretical physicists led by Steven Girvin, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, the team manufactured two artificial atoms, or qubits ('quantum bits'). While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states. These states are akin to the '1' and '0' or 'on' and 'off' states of regular bits employed by conventional computers. Because of the counterintuitive laws of quantum mechanics, however, scientists can effectively place qubits in a 'superposition' of multiple states at the same time, allowing for greater information storage and processing power."
The possible applications for this technology are an exciting prospect. Handheld supercomputers, true real-time physics simulations for research and gaming, maybe even time travelling phone booths...
Ignorance is Bliss -- And the Opposite is True -- Genius is Madness
Honey, I got you these two solid-state qubits that hold their quantum states for a microsecond and can be used to perform rudimentary algorithms.
The enemies of Democracy are
You can find the lab site here with several papers freely available in pre-publication form on arxiv from the researchers. I'm trying to find the "basic algorithms" the article alludes to that these rudimentary processors can perform. I thought only a handful were applicable (Shor's algorithm) to quantum computing. Anyone know?
My work here is dung.
While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states.
Does this sound like they're using real atoms to simulate qubits? Perhaps I'm misinterpretting, but it looks like it's still going to take an exponential amount of resources to "make" each additional qubit.
We all knew this day would come. We're now officially living in the future. We can expect even greater leaps and bounds in scientific progress now. Like electric cars and drawing energy from the very air we breathe. Our ancestors in the 1950's would be proud.
And that was the last Terry Fox run I ever participated in.
Soon a PC with a Quantum Processor, Holographic Memory and optical storage.
"I think you know what I'm talkin' about, Mr. President; We're gonna kill us a mummy!" - Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley
Will the production model allow us to upload our consciousness to the Universal Computer?
In that case, I might actually queue up for it (and let others queue for the iPhone).
I am not trying to split hairs. This is actually a rather important point: they did not manufacture "two artificial atoms, or qubits". They manufactured two clusters of atoms that acted as qubits.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nature08121.pdf
(For those with access to Nature through school or work...)
So in theory, one of the greatest scientific inquiries can now be solved by a quantum computer.
Which came first? The chicken or the egg.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Seriously, I wonder if this comes to pass and we continue on the binary process forever. (IIRC, some mainframes back in the '40s and '50s used decimal processing, which was too slow then, so all switched eventually to binary.)
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Wow. I'm very excited for the future of computing right now. I hope when I'm 65 and this technology is finally implemented I'll still know how to use computers. If my parents are any indication...unlikely...
Why can't people use a real name in Slashdot or Reddit?
I'm sorry you feel that way, Mr. Sybert42.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
... cracken' UR codez.
In one of those universes, this meme is still funny, and I'm not a dipshit.
Probably not.
Feed 42 to it and let us know how it goes!
NO SIG
I thought I remembered reading about a multi-qubit quantum computer that implemented Shor's algorithm for a small input?
It appears that Wikipedia says it was 15 = 3×5. That page says they used photonic qubits - as opposed to the aluminum qubits here, I guess. Can anyone enlighten me as to why these are better, or why this is a big deal? It seems that these decay just as quickly as the photonic ones.
How far till we have a Beowulf Cluster of Quantum Processors?
Fish.
I don't yet know what kind of porn this enables. I just know that I want it.
Don't forget that you should also be able to change the state of the qubits on the server running your cloud applications.
More evidence of the MS shill campaign going on at slashdot...
While each qubit is actually made up of a billion aluminum atoms, it acts like a single atom that can occupy two different energy states.
This sounds a like a bose-einstein condensate, where many atoms will act is if though they are all part of a larger, single atom. Also, it gains some pretty interesting properties, neither of which can be described exactly as solid, liquid or gas.
The article didn't mention anything about near absolute zero temps, though.
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
I'm confused. What does any of this have to do with our beloved Qubert? Nothing to see here, lets move on...
"First Electronic Quantum Processor Created".. Sorry to spoil the fun, but does anyone do facts checking with these articles before posting? Guess not, because these guys presented a 28 qbit prototype and working quantum processor back in 07.
Moses: 300 qubits? That's awfully small, dude.
Facts take all of the premium out of arm waving - T. Reynolds
Quantum memory does not make a quantum computer. These are 2 data stores... not a *processor* ( and by that I simply mean a device that can receive a series of signals and perform actions based upon them )
Every bit of quantum computing is utter BS until someone can illustrate how you can interface with these objects with traditional "newtonian" electronics. Quantum computers may be able to act in a magical simultaneous manner, but it still eventually has to get serialized for the human.
Why can't people use a real name in Slashdot or Reddit?
I don't know Sybert42, why can't they?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
coding is life
If you see people poking fun at a man who has essentially set himself up as a giant joke to be a conspiracy inspired by Microsoft, I recommend you ignore the doctor's instructions and double up your dosage.
Until you read this message.
Riiiiight. What's a qubit?
If I tell you, I'll lose my superposition high and collapse.
coding is life
Google Maps - Traveling Salesmen.
Imagine how much fuel could be saved by UPS or FedEx in a given year.
In fact, due to the state superposition, any set of qubits longer then the number of bits in the GPL will necessarily contain the GPL.
Ditto for the Windows EULA. (what's worse, you can get the Windows EULA superposed over the GPL, and wind up with a completely undistributable state.)
I for one welcome our Linux running Qubit overlords and in full disclousure IANAL but ITFA they had me ROTFL'ing when I pondered Linxu being greated then Micro$oft running in an N-Dimensional space until NYCL told me that my ImaginaryProperty was sold by kdawson to CmdTaco because Truth != Facts != Love != Reality after SCO and the RIAA\MPAA sued Open Source and WON!
Therefore your post sucks and should be deleted.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
Then why do you sign your posts Anonymous Cowardon?
http://i44.tinypic.com/2ia33bn.jpg
(founded 95,000,000 yrs ago, very space opera)
imagine a beowulf cluster of these...
Don't look at them!
mov ax,4c00h
int 21h
The fact that they managed to construct a quantum computing device using solid-state physics is a technological breakthrough. It may revive the interest in the topic (which was fading due to lack of technological progress).
"Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead." (John Maynard Keynes)
Quantum computing is one of biggest hoaxes/crackpotteries in the history of science, on a par with the flat earth hypothesis.
Quantum Computing Crackpottery
Honey, I got you these two solid-state qubits that hold their quantum states for a microsecond and can be used to perform rudimentary algorithms.
I agree, but the basic question remains: Will it run Vista ?
If they got this far and we know about it then how far has the NSA gotten?
this has serious implications for RSA.
I took a class on Quantum computing, and studied many specific QC algorithms, so I know a little bit about them. A lot of misunderstandings about them, so let me summarize.
Quantum Computers are not super-computers. On a bit-for-bit (or qubit-for-qubit) scale, they're not necessarily faster than regular computers, they just process info differently. Since information is stored in a quantum "superposition" of states, as opposed to a deterministic state like regular computers, the qubits exhibit quantum interference around other qubits. Typically, your bit starts in 50% '0' and 50% '1', and thus when you measure it, you get a 50% chance of it being one or the other (and then it assumes that state). But if you don't measure, and push it through quantum circuits allowing them to interact with other qubits, you get the quantum phases to interfere and cancel out. If you are damned smart (as I realized you have to be, to design QC algorithms), you can figure out creative ways to encode your problem into qubits, and use the interference to cancel out the information you don't want, and leave the information you do want.
For instance, some calculations will start with the 50/50 qubit above, and end with 99% '0' and 1% '1' at the end of the calculation, or vice versa, depending on the answer. Then you've got a 99% chance of getting the right answer. If you run the calculation twice, you have a 99.99% chance of measuring the correct answer.
However, the details of these circuits which perform quantum algorithms are extremely non-intuitive to most people, even those who study it. I found it to require an amazing degree of creativity, to figure out how to combine qubits to take advantage of quantum interference constructively. But what does this get us?
Well it turns out that quantum computers can run anything a classical computer can do, and such algorithms can be written identically if you really wanted to, but doing so gets the same results as the classical computer (i.e. same order of growth). But, the smart people who have been publishing papers about this for the past 20 years have been finding new ways to combine qubits, to take advantage of nature of certain problems (usually deep, pure-math concepts), to achieve better orders of growth than possible on a classical computer. For instance, factoring large numbers is difficult on classical computers, which is why RSA/PGP/GPG/PKI/SSL is secure. It's order of growth is e^( n^(1/3) ). It's not quite exponential, but it's still prohibitive. It turns out that Shor figured out how to get it to n^2 on a quantum computer (which is the same order of growth as decrypting with the private key on a classical computer!). Strangely, trying to guess someone's encryption key, normally O(n) on classical computers (where n is the number of possible keys encryption keys) it's only O(sqrt(n)) on QCs. Weird (but sqrt(n) is still usually too big).
There's a vast number of other problems for which efficient quantum algorithms have been found. Unfortunately, a lot of these problems aren't particularly useful in real life (besides to the curious pure-mathematician). A lot of them are better, but not phenomenal. Like verifying that two sparse matrices were mulitplied correctly has order of growth n^(7/3) on a classical computer, n^(5/3) on a quantum computer. You can find a pretty extensive list by googling "quantum algorithm zoo."
Unfortunately [for humanity], there is no evidence yet that quantum computers will solve NP-complete problems efficiently. Most likely, they won't. So don't get your hopes up about solving the traveling salesmen problem any time soon. But there is still a lot of cool stuff we can do with them. In fact, the theory is so far ahead of the technology, that we're anxiously waiting for breakthroughs like this, so we can start plugging problems through known algorithms.
This has got to be one of the best breakthroughs in theoretical physics I've seen lately.
http://moustachio.novahost.org/?p=47
Two qubits? As far as I'm concerned that's not a quantum processor, it's a quantum transistor. Wake me up when they have a few of these things slung together to make a logic gate.
The only way to tell the difference between a hamster and a gerbil is that the hamster has more white meat.
So, what do you make an artificial atom out of?
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That's nice, but if they can't scale it, or create entanglement between the qubits, it isn't going to be of any immediate use. Some guys at IBM built a quantum circuit to factor the number 15, which took seven qubits, and that was not a general algorithm. The general algorithm would take 3-10 times (you'd want error correction for larger numbers) the number of bits needed to represent the number.
Unfortunately the supply of cats is running out.
The live ones we can re-use; the dead ones are problematic.
.
- aqk
F U
This has been the holy grail of computing for a while now. Sorry, I would not put the champagne on ice. There will be more challenges in engineering this into a workable solution.
Yes! No! Maybe? Er... I think you'd have to look at it to be sure.