This article was first published on our sister Site, What’s New On The Net.
Last week, we reported that Google’s team of researchers had claimed to have attained what’s called as “quantum supremacy” for the first time in their super-computing effort.
We decided to do this primer on quantum computing for our readers. Here’s quantum computing explained:
Since the advent of personal computers, every device available for purchase or use, in any form, has been a “classical computer”. Classical computation relies on memory made up of bits. These computers, from the super devices used for experimental purposes by universities & businesses, to mobile devices, work using a basic logic of state — either true or false, on or off, 1 or 0. However, a completely different type of computer is being tested by a few organizations around the world, which work on a unique premise – that of quantum mechanics.
Quantum computing, first envisaged by Paul Benioff in the ‘80s, has undergone radical experimentation. As a result, it has become somewhat more practical to use. These type of computers work via a process called superposition – a state where 1 & 0, true or false can exist simultaneously.
Quantum computers use qubits, rather than bits, & can potentially solve complex algorithms, such as Peter Shor’s polynomial-time quantum algorithm, far quicker than their classical counterparts.
Why do we need them?
Factoring integers (Shor’s algorithm) is notoriously difficult for traditional computers to solve — exponentially large numbers are used in their random form, in various methods of cryptography. Classical computers could take years to decrypt a number generated in this manner. A quantum computer, on the other hand, provided that its error ratio can be controlled, might solve the problem in mere minutes. Naturally, then, to prevent decryption, quantum computers would be used to generate random numbers, which are out of the classical computers’ spectrum. This ability makes quantum computing very attractive to government agencies.
Other areas of use include Quantum Physics, Quantum Chemistry & database searching. Quantum computing operates at molecular level, working with the tiniest of elements, such as the atom. Logic-gates, used by quantum computers to eliminate possibly incorrect answers from a result set, mean that these computers will potentially be far more decisive when dealing with enormous data bundles, which probably explains Google’s supreme interest in these devices.
Who’s got them, & how do they operate?
Google, Microsoft, IBM, Airbus and other organizations with deep pockets are making significant investments in Quantum Technology.
Quantum computers are unlike the computers we currently use. They are large & have to be very carefully controlled so as to eliminate errors. They are extremely error prone, so much so that they could be rendered useless while conducting a simple operation. Almost anything affects their performance, from a slight temperature change to vibrations in the air, as a result, these computers are kept in labs where every aspect of the environment is monitored & controlled to the finest detail.
Sycamore
Quantum supremacy is achieved when a quantum computer performs an algorithm successfully that a classical computer could not complete, or only complete in a significant amount of time. Google announced earlier this week (in the prestigious publication Nature that their 54 qubit (only 53 qubits were working during the experiment) that its quantum Ccomputer Sycamore had achieved this important milestone. This fact was immediately disputed by IBM, who claimed that its supercomputer, which incidentally is a classical model, could solve the problem in 2.5 days, rather than the 10,000 years predicted by Google. Google has set them the task of proving their claim.
Ideally, quantum computers should have between 100-200 qubits, which would make them absolutely unbeatable, since the factor of achieving a result increases multiply with every additional qubit. This is the future, an unexplored horizon of possibility.
Image by Oleg Gamulinskiy from Pixabay