Having dipped my toe into trying to understand quantum physics (in books designed to explain such concepts to the ordinary wo/man in the street) and ending up with not inconsiderable brain-ache, I don’t stand a hope of understanding the development announced last week by Canadian start-up D-Wave Systems of the world’s first commercially viable quantum computer, the “16-qubit” Orion. Apparently, it uses an analogue processor that uses the laws of quantum mechanics rather than utilising the rather more conventional laws of physics.
Please tell me if I’m wrong but I think it works like this. Digital computer bits switch between either a 0 or a 1 state, but the quantum processor can be in both a 1 and a 0 state at the same time. In the demo D-Wave Systems gave the computer 3 problems to solve; searching for molecular structures that match a pre-selected caffeine molecule, create a complicated wedding seating plan and successfully fill in various Sudoku puzzles.
Oh and BTW the Quantum computer runs at 4 millikelvin (or nearly minus 273.15 degrees Celsius)-not much danger of over-heating then!
For further reading take a look at the following sites:
CNet News
Extremetech
D-Wave Systems
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