What you need to know first about the inexplicable world of quantum computing

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Despite what most people think, quantum mechanics is not new to the technology block. & Nbsp; It's a concept almost 120 years old.

Max Planck, a German theoretical physicist, introduced quantum theory for the first time in 1900, an innovation that won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. & nbsp; Then, in 1959, Richard Feynman, an American theoretical physicist with radical ideas, laid the foundation for quantum computing. He suggested using quantum mechanics to build a new type of computer.

Since then, despite its complexity, we have made good progress in the development of small functional quantum computers and a limited menu of quantum algorithms.

Even in this case, Robin Blume-Kohout and Kevin Young, scientists at Sandia National Laboratory, are examining progress in quantum computing from a different angle. They think we are at the same stage as classical computing in the late thirties.

IBM calls this the Quantum Ready step. This suggests that it is time to get up and start preparing our systems, our staff and our resources in the era of quantum computing. & nbsp; By all accounts, quantum computing in its own right will not be a small wave of change; it will be a technological tsunami.

Most researchers agree that quantum computing is still in the experimental stage. & Nbsp; The truth is that an ordinary computer can do everything quantum computers today can do.

However, stay tuned, we have reason to believe that it could change very soon.

Quantum supremacy is a buzzword. & nbsp; Until now, it was an impossible benchmark for quantum researchers. & nbsp; It describes the ability of quantum computers to solve problems that conventional computers can not solve. You can consider quantum supremacy as Mount Everest of quantum computing, except that this mountain has not been climbed yet.

Despite skeptics, Google has hinted that its 72-qubit quantum processor, called Bristlecone, would reach quantum supremacy this year. Bristlecone is a larger scale version of his older brother of nine qubits. & nbsp; Scaling qubits generally increases system noise and errors, but Google has been very successful in controlling quantum errors with Bristlecone.

The first demonstration of quantum supremacy in the world will be an important step, not only for quantum computing, but for the entire scientific community.

Breaking this barrier will be just as important as IBM's spectacular Deep Blue victory in 1997 over world chess champion Gary Kasparov. This humiliating defeat was not just a computer striking a man. & Nbsp; This testified to the supremacy of computer logic over expert human thought.

If our expectations of quantum computing hold, Moor Insights & amp; Strategy believes that it will be the most disruptive technology since the invention of microprocessors. Here are some areas in which quantum computing will have a significant impact:

1. New chemicals, drugs and materials can be modeled, modified and designed with custom properties to develop new pharmaceutical, commercial and commercial products.
2. Today, we use supercomputers to solve various optimization problems, such as Monte Carlo simulations, energy applications and bond prices. & Nbsp; Quantum computers will enable more robust simulations on a much larger scale to provide more detailed information, increased efficiency and better forecasts.
3. The combination of quantum computing and artificial intelligence is almost a scary thought. Artificial intelligence could become orders of magnitude smarter than today.

It will take another three to five years to develop a medium-sized quantum computer. Jeffrey Welser, vice president of IBM Research, delivered the keynote address at SEMICON West. He added that it would take another 10 to 15 years to realize the real benefits of quantum computing.

Despite the expected long-term development, large companies that use sophisticated financial or scientific models of their products or their sector should not wait to get into the quantum game.

It's not yet half-time, but the whistle sounded and the quantum game began.

Quantum superpowers

During the past year, quantum computers have been the subject of much media hype. & Nbsp; Most were there, but some were exaggerated. Despite some erroneous articles, users have learned that quantum computers are faster and have more computing power than conventional computers. & Nbsp; & nbsp; However, the true value of quantum computing lies in its ability to solve complex problems that are too difficult, if not impossible, to solve by traditional computers.

As fantastic as it may seem, the problems that would take billions of billions of years to solve traditional computers would only take a few seconds to those of quantum computers.

This amazing power is possible because quantum machines are totally different from conventional computers. & Nbsp; They are based on bizarre properties that only exist in quantum mechanics and exponentially give them more capacity for storage and processing.

With everyone having a different opinion, each company seems to have a different idea of ​​the best technology for building quantum computers. & Nbsp; For the average citizen, they all sound like raging science fiction. Eyeballs, such as trapped ions, superconductors, and light particles called photons, are at the heart of quantum computing's ability to perform extremely fast calculations and to ingest huge amounts of data. .

Stranger Things in the real world

Classical physics describes how great things behave and interact in our physical world. & Nbsp; Quantum theory deals with the extraordinary and inexplicable interaction of small particles on the invisible scale of atoms, electrons and photons.

If you live in the tiny world of particles, you would probably describe it as schizophrenic.

Particles disappear and then reappear, control their distant and unbound sister particles, and act as a precision drill team when assembled in a group. Some scientists even think that quantum particles not only travel in time, but also enter and exit other universes.

Wacky but true quantum concepts

• Wave-particle duality: A quantum particle can behave as both a particle and a wave. Once you have measured it, the wave function is reduced and looks like a particle.
• overlay: Quantum systems called qubits can exist simultaneously in several states. A qubit can be one or a zero. & Nbsp; However, it can also be a one and a zero, or any other digit in between. & Nbsp; If an operation is applied to a qubit while it is in an overlay state, both states will be affected simultaneously.
• Tangle: Tangled qubits act in the same way. If two qubits are entangled, the state of each qubit depends on the other qubit. & Nbsp; Theoretically, you can tangle several thousand qubits (we do not have the technology yet to do the same). & Nbsp; & nbsp; If you do an operation on one of the thousands, you will be able to immediately determine the status of all qubits. & Nbsp; Even if you separate the entangled particles from each other, they can remain entangled. China has recently set the record by creating a tangle of particles on a satellite and particles on Earth.
• Measurement: By simply measuring a quantum particle, you can modify it, causing the wave function to collapse.
• Coherence: The amount of time that a qubit maintains its state of entanglement or overlay is called consistency. The longer the coherence time, the better it is, as it allows more calculations to be done.
• Teleportation: I know it sounds like "please me" stuff, but it's not. It is an essential element of quantum mechanics. & Nbsp; You need a pair of entangled particles to do it. This simply involves copying the state of one particle onto the other entangled particle and then destroying the initial state. & nbsp; Teleportation is possible over distances.

We are the same but different

Quantum computers and quantum door rings are the cats and dogs of quantum computers. Both technologies use superconducting architectures and require cooling processors at temperatures close to absolute zero. & Nbsp; Despite their similarities, the two types are extremely different.

Quantum computers based on doors& nbsp;

These are the computers that will take us into the future. They are designed to solve general problems and perform simulations. & nbsp; Their qubits interact with each other during the calculation, instead of acting alone as the quantum annellers do. & nbsp; As its name suggests, a gate machine uses quantum gates and can execute arbitrary quantum algorithms. & nbsp; They are noise sensitive and require error correction to work properly. The error correction results in very large overheads in terms of space, hardware and logic.

From a technical point of view, the door computers are very complex machines. However, the theory behind grid-based quantum computers is very mature, which means that we know what needs to be done, we still do not know how to do it.

The main quantum computing companies are Google, IBM, Intel, Ion Q, Microsoft and Rigetti. & Nbsp; They all have quantum processors based on gates but use different qubit technologies, as shown above.

Quantum rings

While door computers are designed to solve most problems, quantization rings are special computers that work best for specific types of optimization and sampling.

Most of us have studied global minima, local minima and optimization problems in high school algebra. If you remember, you already have an idea of ​​how the quantization rings work.

D-Wave is the leading supplier of quantum annealing. & Nbsp; It uses a superconducting processor with 2048 qubits. To solve a problem, he examines all possible solutions to find the energy and the lowest values. & Nbsp; It is very different from quantum door machines. & Nbsp; Unlike a quantum gate based computer, the D-Wave can not manipulate individual qubits during computation, which is why it can scale up to 2048 qubits. & nbsp; It does not use error correction and only uses one quantum algorithm.

Down the road

The ultimate game of quantum computing is a fault tolerant and fully functional universal gate computer. To fulfill its promise, it needs thousands, even millions, of qubits capable of executing arbitrary quantum algorithms and solving extremely complex problems and simulations.

Before we can build such a quantum machine, we have a lot of development work to do. & nbsp; & nbsp; In general, we need:

• Advanced algorithms needed to handle extraordinarily complex problems
• Quantum processors with thousands of qubits
• Sophisticated error correction without football field filled with material
• More reliable qubits with longer coherence time and less noise sensitivity
• A better way to minimize noise

Do not look for such a quantum machine in five or ten years. & Nbsp; There are at least two or three decades left.

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Despite what most people think, quantum mechanics is not new to the technology block. It's a concept almost 120 years old.

Max Planck, a German theoretical physicist, introduced quantum theory for the first time in 1900, an innovation that won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. Then, in 1959, Richard Feynman, an American theoretical physicist with radical ideas, laid the groundwork for quantum computing. He suggested using quantum mechanics to build a new type of computer.

Since then, despite its complexity, we have made good progress in the development of small functional quantum computers and a limited menu of quantum algorithms.

Even in this case, Robin Blume-Kohout and Kevin Young, scientists at Sandia National Laboratory, are examining progress in quantum computing from a different angle. They think we are at the same stage as classical computing in the late thirties.

IBM calls this the Quantum Ready step. This suggests that it is time to get up and start preparing our systems, our staff and our resources in the era of quantum computing. By all accounts, complete quantum computing will not be a small wave of change; it will be a technological tsunami.

Most researchers agree that quantum computing is still in the experimental stage. The truth is that an ordinary computer can do everything quantum computers today can do.

However, stay tuned, we have reason to believe that it could change very soon.

Quantum supremacy is a buzzword. Until now, it was an impossible benchmark for quantum researchers. It describes the ability of quantum computers to solve problems that conventional computers can not touch. You can consider quantum supremacy as Mount Everest of quantum computing, except that this mountain has not been climbed yet.

Despite skeptics, Google has hinted that its 72-qubit quantum processor, called Bristlecone, would reach quantum supremacy this year. Bristlecone is a larger scale version of his older brother of nine qubits. Scaling qubits generally increases system noise and errors, but Google has been very successful in controlling quantum errors with Bristlecone.

The first demonstration of quantum supremacy in the world will be an important step, not only for quantum computing, but for the entire scientific community.

Breaking this barrier will be just as important as IBM's spectacular Deep Blue victory in 1997 over world chess champion Gary Kasparov. This humiliating defeat was not just a computer beating a man. This testified to the supremacy of computer logic over expert human thought.

If our expectations of quantum computing are met, Moor Insights & Strategy thinks it will be the most disruptive technology since the invention of microprocessors, once it has reached maturity. Here are some areas in which quantum computing will have a significant impact:

1. New chemicals, drugs and materials can be modeled, modified and designed with custom properties to develop new pharmaceutical, commercial and commercial products.
2. Today, we use supercomputers to solve various optimization problems, such as Monte Carlo simulations, energy applications and bond prices. Quantum computers will enable more robust simulations on a much larger scale to provide more detailed information, increased efficiency and better forecasts.
3. The combination of quantum computing and artificial intelligence is almost a scary thought. Artificial intelligence could become orders of magnitude smarter than today.

It will take another three to five years to develop a medium-sized quantum computer. Jeffrey Welser, vice president of IBM Research, delivered the keynote address at SEMICON West. He added that it would take another 10 to 15 years to realize the real benefits of quantum computing.

Despite the expected long-term development, large companies that use sophisticated financial or scientific models of their products or their sector should not wait to get into the quantum game.

It's not yet half-time, but the whistle sounded and the quantum game began.

Quantum superpowers

In the past year, there has been a lot of hype about quantum computers. Most were there, but some were exaggerated. Despite some erroneous articles, people have learned that quantum computers are faster and have more computing power than conventional computers. However, the true value of quantum computing lies in its ability to solve complex problems that are too difficult, if not impossible, to solve by traditional computers.

As fantastic as it may seem, the problems that would take billions of billions of years to solve traditional computers would only take a few seconds to those of quantum computers.

This breathtaking power is possible because quantum machines are totally different from conventional computers. They are based on bizarre properties that only exist in quantum mechanics and exponentially give them more capacity for storage and processing.

Just as everyone has a different opinion, each company seems to have a different idea of ​​the best technology for building quantum computers. For the average citizen, they all sound like raging science fiction. Eyeballs, such as trapped ions, superconductors, and light particles called photons, are at the heart of quantum computing's ability to perform extremely fast calculations and to ingest huge amounts of data. .

Stranger Things in the real world

Classical physics describes how great things behave and interact in our physical world. Quantum theory deals with the extraordinary and inexplicable interaction of small particles on the invisible scale of atoms, electrons and photons.

If you live in the tiny world of particles, you would probably describe it as schizophrenic.

Particles disappear and then reappear, control their distant and unbound sister particles, and act as a precision drill team when assembled in a group. Some scientists even think that quantum particles not only travel in time, but also enter and exit other universes.

Wacky but true quantum concepts

• Wave-particle duality: A quantum particle can behave as both a particle and a wave. Once you have measured it, the wave function is reduced and looks like a particle.
• overlay: Quantum systems called qubits can exist simultaneously in several states. A qubit can be one, or a zero. However, it can also be a one and a zero, or any other digit in between. If an operation is applied to a qubit while it is in an overlay state, both states will be affected simultaneously.
• Tangle: Tangled qubits act in the same way. If two qubits are entangled, the status of each qubit depends on the other qubit. Theoretically, you can tangle several thousand qubits (we do not have the technology yet to do the same). If you do an operation on one of the thousands, you will be able to immediately determine the status of all qubits. Even if you separate the entangled particles from each other, they can remain entangled. China has recently set the record by creating a tangle of particles on a satellite and particles on Earth.
• Measurement: By simply measuring a quantum particle, you can modify it, causing the wave function to collapse.
• Coherence: The amount of time that a qubit maintains its state of entanglement or overlay is called consistency. The longer the coherence time, the better it is, as it allows more calculations to be done.
• Teleportation: I know it sounds like "do-it-me-Scottie" stuff, but it's not. It is an essential element of quantum mechanics. You need a pair of entangled particles to do it. This simply involves copying the state of one particle onto the other entangled particle and then destroying the initial state. Teleportation is possible over distances.

We are the same but different

Quantum computers and quantum door rings are the cats and dogs of quantum computers. Both technologies use superconducting architectures and require cooling processors at temperatures close to absolute zero. Despite their similarities, the two types are extremely different.

Quantum computers based on doors

These are the computers that will take us into the future. They are designed to solve general problems and perform simulations. Their qubits interact with each other during computation, rather than acting alone as quantum annealers. As its name suggests, a gate machine uses quantum gates and can execute arbitrary quantum algorithms. They are sensitive to noise and require error correction to work properly. The error correction results in very large overheads in terms of space, hardware and logic.

From a technical point of view, the door computers are very complex machines. However, the theory behind grid-based quantum computers is very mature, which means that we know what needs to be done, we still do not know how to do it.

The main quantum computing companies are Google, IBM, Intel, Ion Q, Microsoft and Rigetti. They all have quantum processors based on gates but use different qubit technologies, as shown above.

Quantum rings

While door computers are designed to solve most problems, quantization rings are special computers that work best for specific types of optimization and sampling.

Most of us have studied global minima, local minima and optimization problems in high school algebra. If you remember, you already have an idea of ​​how the quantization rings work.

D-Wave is the dominant supplier in the field of quantum annealing. It uses a superconducting processor with 2048 qubits. To solve a problem, he examines all possible solutions to find the energy and the lowest values. This is very different from quantum door machines. Unlike a quantum gate based computer, the D-Wave can not manipulate individual qubits during computation, which is why it can scale up to 2048 qubits. It does not use error correction and only uses one quantum algorithm.

Down the road

The ultimate game of quantum computing is a fault tolerant and fully functional universal gate computer. To fulfill its promise, it needs thousands, even millions, of qubits capable of executing arbitrary quantum algorithms and solving extremely complex problems and simulations.

Before we can build such a quantum machine, we have a lot of development work to do. In general, we need:

• Advanced algorithms needed to handle extraordinarily complex problems
• Quantum processors with thousands of qubits
• Sophisticated error correction without football field filled with material
• More reliable qubits with longer coherence time and less noise sensitivity
• A better way to minimize noise

Do not look for such a quantum machine in five or ten years. There are at least two or three decades left.