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D-Wave Announces Commercially Available Quantum Computer
New submitter peetm writes "Computing company D-Wave has announced they're selling a quantum computing system commercially, which they're calling the D-Wave One. The D-Wave system comes equipped with a 128-qubit processor designed to perform discrete optimization operations. A qubit is the basic unit of quantum information – analogous to a bit in conventional computing. For a broader understanding of how qubits work, check out Ars Technica's excellent guide."
I'm being serious by the way. :p Whats the performance like on these things?
Does it run Linux?
Flying cars, I want my flying damn car already.
The name "quantum computer" is a bit misleading, since this thing as far as I understood is a classical computer that performs quickly an algorithm called quantum annealing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_annealing). If I understand correctly, the "128 qubits" part is snake oil, and it has nothing to do with the explanation of qubits given by Ars Technica in the other link.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
This is simultaneously the first post and not the first post!
W00T!
old news!
128qubits? That should be enough for everybody!
If this system uses qbits, why are there a power of two?
Imagine a beowulf cluster? Anyone... ahh.. at least I'm Anonymous.
"I'm completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning perfectly"
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
For those that want some more info I can advise the "Quantum computing for the determined" channel by Michael Nielsen:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1826E60FD05B44E4
posting AC coz I'm on a public WiFi.
I witnessed, first hand just the other day, a demonstration of a machine loading up the linux, and several points piqued my interest for sure.
Firstly, the machine loaded into the Microsoft boot sequence prior to loading the linux. This is the segment of the operating system which counts down the memory, and configures the A:, C: and D: drives prior to loading the Microsoft windows. Although the machine did not display the familiar windows animation, it was obvious that the linux was freeloading off the back of this prior installation/boot sequence. The aforementioned demonstrator, upon further questioning, even admitted that 'Oh, That part is not the linux', and then went on to confuse the issue with technical jargon. However, one cannot mask a simple act of piracy with excessive verbosity. A fool and his lamb are worth 2 in the bush.
Now - I will admit after some further research, that the linux is not in fact a complete copy of Microsoft Windows. My research indicates that it is in fact a copy of Unix. I bet you didnt know that young man ? Yes, its a straight copy of Unix, even down to copying verbatim codefiles straight from the source of Unix. I believe there is a court case in progress regarding this latest discovery. The magnitude of the theft is now becoming apparent.
However, this remarkable fact may well uncover the answer to Ed Bott's mystery linux installation failure. You see, the Unix was designed to run within the VHF to UHF spectra (much like a radio), which is all well and good until you consider that modern computers run in the microwave range, at which regular radio reception starts to have serious issues. If one were to use a UHF receiver to tune in to a quad-phased broadcast in the Microwave spectra, one would fail miserably.
I would wager a bet that Ed Bott's computing apparatus was a more contemporary design utilizing a 3GHz central processor unit (or CPU). Under such frequencies, the linux would literally tear itself apart, its code lacking the internal cohesion to sustain this extreme environment. The Microsoft by comparison, is streamlined and engineered to withstand this Microwave environment, thanks no doubt to the forethought of its designers.
And of this there is ample evidence, which one can easily do an msn-search for and witness first hand. All of this evidence is on the public record, and cannot be denied.
This has the same central problem as before. D-Wave's computers haven't demonstrated that their commercial bits are entangled. There's no way to really distinguish what they are doing from essentially classical simulated annealing. And the set of problems which their machines can supposedly works on is an NP-hard problem minimization problem involving Ising spin where it isn't even clear that from a complexity standpoint that the the problem can be more quickly solved in general by a quantum system. (Essentially we don't know the relationship between BQP, the set of problems reliably solvable on a quantum computer in polynomial time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BQP and NP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP_(complexity). Recommended reading that is skeptical of D-Wave's claims is much of what Scott Aaronson has wrote about them. See for example http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=639, http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=198 although interestingly after he visited D-Wave's labs in person his views changed slightly and became slightly more sympathetic to them http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=954.
I'll buy one .... in universes where this uranium atom breaks down in the next 10 minutes. Now you will need a quantum computer to bill me!
Takes only 14 attempts on a classical computer, not 5000! The article author must have never heard of a binary search.
Dear Sir, I am a Nigerian Professor of great fame, and I will make this one-time offer to You only ..........
for a ridiculous price of $100$ only!
My excellent quantum computer is cleverly disguised as an old Nike sneaker box,
so You can use it without fear of authorirties.
For further information, please send $10 to the following account for mail processing costs
and attach your credit card number for billing.
I stopped reading the ars article after
If the phonebook has 10,000 entries, on average you'll need to look through about half of them—5,000 entries—before you get lucky. A quantum search algorithm only needs to guess 100 times. With 5,000 guesses a quantum computer could search through a phonebook with 25 million names.
Using linear search on a phonebook (which is alphabetized) is preposterous. As the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on Grover's algorithm says,
Grover's algorithm is a quantum algorithm for searching an unsorted database with N entries in O(N^1/2) time and using O(log N) storage space
So, the example should have used an unsorted database. The article also implies the big-O constant is 1, which I find very suspicious.
I lie. I read on, but then stopped again after
During a quantum algorithm, this symphony of possibilities split and merge, eventually coalescing around a single solution.
I lie again. I continued reading on, but was forced to quit once and for all by
The crown jewel of quantum mechanics, the phenomenon of entanglement is inextricably bound to the power of quantum computers.
Can anyone suggest a math-filled crash course in quantum computing that doesn't wax poetic while screwing up the few technical details it gives? Something geared for someone with a little knowledge of quantum mechanics like some Hilbert space theory, knowledge of the roles of Hermitian operators and kets, etc. would be what I'm after.
I actually though of much the same idea a few months ago... however, this processor doesn't actually use "real" qbits, so the performance increase will not be nearly that of a true quantum computer.
All - author of the piece speaking here. Yes, I'm aware of the D-Wave controversies, and talked with Scott Aaronson in a later piece at the time of the announcement. I'm cringing a little bit as I re-read this post because I know a heck of a lot more about quantum computing now than I did then. My take on D-Wave's computer now is that it's probably not a 'true' quantum computer in the sense that it involves any quantum speedup or entanglement. That said, I think that their annealing process is interesting in and of itself. I see their quantum computing tag as being akin to calling something '4G' in the wireless world. For those more interested in quantum computing, I updated the post to include some of the Q&A's I did about D-Wave at the time, as well as some of the quantum computing research I've covered since then, including some conversations with quantum computing researchers.
FTFY : D-Wave has announced that they're selling a quantum computing system comically
Article published 5/17/2011 @ 2:34PM
For those who would like a gentle introduction to quantum computing take a look at: A Smidgen of Quantum Computing
HPC for Primates. Read Cluster Monkey
Here's previous comments about what quantum computing really is: Informative!
D-Wave has always been known to be full of $#!+ when it comes to quantum computers. They've never demonstrated entanglement in their QCs which pretty much makes this a classical computer with a different medium for pushing information around. That's not to say that their research is complete shit. They are pioneering better ways to control qubits. But actual quantum computers are a major threat to modern day cryptography, and this "quantum computer" doesn't concern me at all.
...I'm always sorry later when I buy the first gen...
A month and some change ago wasn't this article posted on slashdot, http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/02/04/140207/100000-prize-prove-quantum-computers-impossible?
Apparently, a quantum computer allows slashdot editors to see backwards in time.
Since this article was posted.....
5/17/2011 @ 2:34PM
Right, that's almost a year ago that this "announcement" took place.
Whoops!
http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081210004854/marveldatabase/images/2/25/Qubit_(Earth-616).jpg
...they're only available in alternative universes.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Can it play Quake?
"The car detector we developed remains competitive in quality to any car detector ever built". - www.dwavesys.com/en/apps-showcase-car.html
Can't we just agree to ignore all announcements about quantum computers that aren't accompanied by both (a) the system reference manual pages for the instructions that manipulate the quantum hardware, and (b) performance numbers for a completely specified problem?
"I can't let you do this, Dave."
how do i know your real? I've never heard of a Nigerian Professor, i though everyone over there was a Prince
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
"I have a terrible pain down all the diodes in my left leg."
Free Martian Whores!
My quantum computer is full of cats. maybe.
How hard would it be to put a really fast classical computer into a black box and trick people into believing it is a quantum computer?
"I know, but will it run on a vanilla Linux kernel or do I need to recompile the kernel with the quantum optimisations first?"
Wake me up when someone has the entanglement implemented.
Until then, it's just buzzwords and useless for the vast majority of problems that could be solved by a real quantum computer.
This may prove to be a viable accelerator node for the few cases where the particular algorithm that this box computes is needed, but I really can't see that as being a widespread problem requiring a solution of this expense.
I also believe a real quantum computer will prove significantly faster at solving even that one algorithm than this box will be.
This box is "quantum" in the same sense that fast-food ground grease is "meat".
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Read about how a quantum computer works in the literature and then look at what this machine does. Two totally different things. Interesting, promising, a worthy endeavor - yes. Maybe a new use for the word, a new type of quantum computer. But not what you probably think.
5 quantum computers
I liken this to an emulated quantum computer. You can emulate more advanced computers as well as less advanced ones! Captcha: capable