Slashdot Mirror


Researchers Create Silicon-Based Quantum Bit

angry tapir writes "Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have created the world's first working quantum bit based on a single atom in silicon. The research team was able to both read and write information using the spin, or magnetic orientation, of an electron bound to a single phosphorous atom embedded in a silicon chip. In February, UNSW researchers revealed they had successfully created a single-atom transistor using a single phosphorous atom in a silicon crystal."

3 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bit not a Qubit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, they've demonstrated a single Qubit.

    TFS makes things mucky by mentioning single electron transistors too, which are a completely different beast.

    The problem with quantum computing isn't demonstrating single qubits though. The problem is in getting a reasonable number in a superposition. Most I've ever seen in a QC that actually does computations is 7 qubits.

    Just to get an idea of the scale we need, Shor's algorithm, the one which we could use to crack RSA encryption in polynomial time, needs 2*N qubits minimum. So to crack RSA1024 we'd need 2048 qubits all in a state of superposition.

    I'm of the opinion adding more qubits to a superposition is going to be an exponentially hard problem.

  2. Re:I have a question: by jamesh · · Score: 5, Funny

    can you run linux on it?

    Nope. Linux requires at least a two bit computer to run.

  3. Re:payback by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    First Evidence of Quantum Tunnelling Slashdot Post Dismissed as Human Error.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.