Items tagged with quantum computing
Quantum computing is the next big field of research that could topple how we use computers today. Now, IBM has proved and demonstrated that quantum computers have advantages over their classical counterparts. To understand what IBM has done, we must first grasp how quantum computing works today. As the blog post describes, computing can be viewed as circuitry, where at the start are a number of classical or quantum bits (qubits). These bits are set to a starting value and then traverse through the circuit, which imparts change on the bits through gates that depend on a user-written program. For example, to compute 1 + 1, you must start at 1, then go through a plus gate to increase the starting...
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During yesterday’s Google I/O event, we heard about several updates to Google software products, including Android 12 and Wear OS. Google also managed to bring in actor Michael Peña to tour the new Google quantum computing and AI campus. Today, we get to take a closer look at it so let us dive right in… Google’s Quantum AI campus in Santa Barbara, California, is a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility. It features the company’s first quantum data center, quantum hardware research laboratories, and quantum processor chip fabrication facilities that will all be used to facilitating the building of the first “error-corrected quantum computer for the...
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Early in 2020, we covered a cryogenic control chip from Intel called Horse Ridge that was destined to help make quantum computing more feasible. Since then, Intel has created a second generation of the chip, and the partnership between Intel and QuTech has only grown. Now, the collaboration is paying dividends as the researchers are now able to demonstrate the advances in the field. When it comes to quantum computing, a major challenge seems to be interfacing between quantum electronics, which operate at incredibly cold temperatures, and regular room-temperature electronics. This is currently a bottleneck that slows research and development, but Intel has seemingly solved the problem with Horse...
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Several years ago, Microsoft succinctly explained why it was making big investments in quantum computing, saying the short answer is "quantum computing will change everything." The longer answer is a bit more complex, but the general takeaway is that Microsoft wants to deliver quantum computing solutions to its customers. As part of that effort, Microsoft today has made available a public preview of its Azure Quantum platform . Microsoft pitches Azure Quantum as the "world's first full-stack, public cloud ecosystem for quantum solutions." It's a unified ecosystem that puts the power of quantum computing within reach of customers who need the kind of complex problem solving that quantum bits—or...
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Quantum computing is a fascinating and continually developing field that may drive computers' future and fundamentally change the world. While that is happening, people still need networks to communicate over the internet. As such, scientists with Fermilab and other research institutes have been applying quantum physics to networking to create quantum teleportation over fiber optic cable. As the researcher’s report states, “The goal of a quantum network is to distribute qubits between different locations, a key task for quantum cryptography, distributed quantum computing, and sensing.” This quantum network can form the backbone of a future quantum internet, where security...
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Every so often, Google and IBM like to flex their developments in quantum computing (Google last year claimed it had achieved quantum supremacy), a highly complex way of crunching data to potentially solve problems much faster than classical computing. But they are not the only players. Enter a company called D-Wave, which claims its new Advantage platform is the most powerful quantum computer in the world, and ready for businesses to use. According to D-Wave, it system contains more than 5,000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity, along with a "hybrid solver service that can run problems with up to one million variables," or up to 20,000 variables on "dense problems." I'm not sure how exactly...
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Less than six months after researchers at Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy, a notion IBM rejects, Honeywell has come out of the woodwork and essentially told them both to step beside, saying it achieved a breakthrough that will allow the company to introduce the world's most powerful quantum computer this year. Yes, the same Honeywell that makes consumer fans to keep the dog days of summer at bay, and the same Honeywell that might be stamped on your home thermostat or humidifier (among other products). Well, sort of the same Honeywell. The company involves itself in much more than just consumer products—it used to build computer systems and mainframes before exiting the...
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Looking ahead, quantum computing has the potential to dramatically alter the technology landscape, though several challenges will have to be overcome for this to be a feasible reality. In an effort towards getting us there, Intel and QuTech—a partnership between Delft University of Technology and TON (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research)—outlined technical designs of a new cryogenic quantum control chip called "Horse Ridge." Intel and QuTech will present a research paper on the topic at the 2020 International Solid State Circuits Conferences (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California. The paper addresses key technical capabilities of Horse Ridge that are designed to...
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Scientists at the University of Bristol and the Technical University of Denmark have made an incredible breakthrough discovery. Researchers for the institutions have achieved quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time. They were able to send information from one chip to another, instantly, without the chips being physically or electronically connected. The scientists say that the breakthrough opens the door for quantum computers and the quantum internet. The teleportation is possible thanks to a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, where two particles are so entwined that they can communicate over long distances. With quantum entanglement, changing the properties of...
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While Intel is currently embroiled in a x86-64 processor battle with AMD, the company is also dipping its toes into the future of computing: quantum computing to be exact. The company today announced the fruits of a partnership with QuTech to introduce the first cryogenic control chip for quantum computers. The chip is codenamed Horse Ridge, and is built on 22-nanonmeter Intel FinFET technology. Quantum computing -- once commercially viable -- will allow a significant leap in processing performance over conventual computers due to the ability to exploit quantum bits (aka, qubits). Qubits can exist in multiple states at once, making it possible to solve complex calculations...
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There's a good old fashioned nerd fight brewing between the eggheads at IBM and Google. Don't worry, it's not physical—it's a war of words and theoretical concepts. What sparked the debate is Google's claim of achieving "quantum supremacy" with Sycamore, a system outfitted with a 53-qubit processor and how it performs compared to a classical supercomputer in a specific task. Google conceived an experiment to demonstrate just how capable Sycamore is, noting it can complete a certain benchmark test in 200 seconds, whereas "a state-of-the-art supercomputer would require approximately 10,000 years to perform the equivalent task." The spunky Mountain View firm details the experiment in a blog...
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We are a little bit closer to making quantum computing an everyday reality. Google researchers reportedly created a quantum computer that has achieved “quantum supremacy”. The quantum computer was able to solve equations that would be nearly impossible for a supercomputer. Google researchers recently developed “Sycamore”, a 53-qubit quantum computer. The computer was able to solve a mathematical equation that would have taken a supercomputer 10,000 years to solve, in a mere 200 seconds. They have also claimed that Sycamore performed another equation in 30 seconds that would have taken the Google Cloud server 50 trillion years to process. A researcher remarked, “This...
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Beam me up, Scotty. Scientists have recently announced that they have achieved complex quantum teleportation. Multidimensional teleportation could have a strong impact on quantum computing and communication. Researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, University of Vienna, and University of Science and Technology of China successfully teleported a three-dimensional quantum state. They were able to teleport the quantum state of a photon or light particle to another. Scientists have theorized that this kind of transportation is possible since the 1990s, but have not been able to prove it. Teleportation does not transport matter, but instead moves quantum information. The scientists were...
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Researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) have announced that they have created a new material that is a key step in creating the next generation of supercomputers. These next-generation quantum computers will be far faster than current supercomputers while consuming much less energy. The scientists on the project work in the OSU College of Science and the compound they have developed is an inorganic material that adopts a crystal structure. The material is capable of sustaining a new state of matter that is known as quantum spin liquid. That new compound is lithium osmium oxide and it has osmium atoms that form a honeycomb-like lattice, and can enforce a phenomenon called "magnetic...
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Google has developed a new quantum processor called Bristlecone that it hopes will be instrumental in building a quantum computer capable of solving real-world problems. At the American Physical Society meeting in Los Angeles where the chip was unveiled, Google said the purpose of its gate-based superconducting system is to provide a testbed for research into system error rates and scalability of its qubit technology, along with applications in quantum simulation, optimization, and machine learning. "In order for a quantum processor to be able to run algorithms beyond the scope of classical simulations, it requires not only a large number of qubits. Crucially, the processor must also have low...
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Coffee Lake is not the only thing Intel has been brewing up. The world's largest semiconductor company announced the delivery of a 17-qubit superconducting test processor for quantum computing to QuTech, its quantum research partner based in the Netherlands. Intel fabricated the chip with a unique design to improve yield and performance, the Santa Clara chip maker said. By no means is the world of quantum computing new terrain for Intel, which has been working with QuTech for the past couple of years on research and development aimed at producing a working quantum computing system. Such a thing would be a major leap in parallel computing, as it would enable scientists and researchers to tackle...
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IBM Research is giving back to the world today with the announcement that its quantum processor is now accessible by the public. The project is called the IBM Quantum Experience and allows regular Joes (and Janes) to manipulate individual quantum bits (or qubits) so that they can test algorithms or run experiments. Making its superconducting 5-qubit processor publicly-accessible should go a long way towards validating the immense work that is being performed behind the scenes to usher in a new era of computing. “This moment represents the birth of quantum cloud computing. By giving hands-on access to IBM’s experimental quantum systems, the IBM Quantum Experience will make it easier for researchers...
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Intel is investing $50 million and "significant engineering resources" into quantum computing. It's part of a decade-long collaborative effort with QuTech, a quantum research institute belonging to Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands and the Dutch Organization for Applied Research. Quantum computing has long been considered the Holy Grail of processing. It's completely different from today's transistor-based computing models and is capable of solving much more complex problems, including intricate simulations like large-scale financial analysis and drug development. Intel's investment and long-term commitment in the field is a big deal, though even with the weight of...
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If you're reading this site, chances are you have heard of Moore's Law. You may have even heard of the law of diminishing returns. Or perhaps you've heard that fast is never fast enough, and big is never big enough. But have you heard of quantum computing? Most people hear that phrase and simply think of some science fiction movie that they have seen in the past. But outside of Hollywood fantasies, it rarely has any real meaning for the average consumer. That's mostly because quantum computing is still a pipe dream in real life, and even after decades of using silicon microchips to power our computers, we're still largely using the same process as we started with. 16-qubit processor in holder...
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