Commercial Quantum Computer?

Quantum computers could revolutionize the way we tackle problems that stump even the best classical computers.
Single atom transistor recently introduced has been seen as a tool that could lead the way to building a quantum computer. For general introduction how quantum computer work, read A tale of two qubits: how quantum computers work article.

D-Wave Announces Commercially Available Quantum Computer article tells that computing company D-Wave has announced that they’re selling a quantum computing system commercially, which they’re calling the D-Wave One. D-Wave system comes equipped with a 128-qubit processor that’s designed to perform discrete optimization operations. The processor uses quantum annealing to perform these operations.

D-Wave is advertisting a number of different applications for its quantum computing system, primarily in the field of artificial intelligence. According to the company, its system can handle virtually any AI application that can be translated to a Markov random field.

dwave

Learning to program the D-Wave One blog article tells that the processor in the D-Wave One – codenamed Rainier – is designed to perform a single mathematical operation called discrete optimization. It is a special purpose processor. When writing applications the D-Wave One is used only for the steps in your task that involve solving optimization problems. All the other parts of your code still run on your conventional systems of choice. Rainier solves optimization problems using quantum annealing (QA), which is a class of problem solving approaches that use quantum effects to help get better solutions, faster. Learning to program the D-Wave One is the first in a series of blog posts describing the algorithms we have run on D-Wave quantum computers, and how to use these to build interesting applications.

But is this the start of the quantum computers era? Maybe not. D-Wave Announces Commercially Available Quantum Computer article comments tell a story that this computer might not be the quantum computer you might be waiting for. It seem that the name “quantum computer” is a bit misleading for this product. There are serious controversies around the working and “quantumness” of the machine. D-Wave has been heavily criticized by some scientists in the quantum computing field. First sale for quantum computing article tells that uncertainty persists around how the impressive black monolith known as D-Wave One actually works. Computer scientists have long questioned whether D-Wave’s systems truly exploit quantum physics on their products.

Slashdot article D-Wave Announces Commercially Available Quantum Computer comments tell that this has the same central problem as before. D-Wave’s computers haven’t demonstrated that their commercial bits are entangled. There’s no way to really distinguish what they are doing from essentially classical simulated annealing. Recommended reading that is skeptical of D-Wave’s claims is much of what Scott Aaronson has wrote about them. See for example http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=639, http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=198 although interestingly after he visited D-Wave’s labs in person his views changed slightly and became slightly more sympathetic to them http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=954.

So it is hard to say if the “128 qubits” part is snake oil or for real. If the 128 “qubits” aren’t entangled at all, which means it is useless for any of the quantum algorithms that one generally thinks of. It seem that this device simply has 128 separate “qubits” that are queried individually, and is, essentially an augmented classical computer that gains a few minor advantages in some very specific algorithms (i.e. the quantum annealing algorithm) due to this qubit querying, but is otherwise indistinguishable from a really expensive classical computer for any other purpose. This has the same central problem as before: D-Wave’s computers haven’t demonstrated that their commercial bits are entangled.

Rather than constantly adding more qubits and issuing more hard-to-evaluate announcements, while leaving the scientific characterization of its devices in a state of limbo, why doesn’t D-Wave just focus all its efforts on demonstrating entanglement, or otherwise getting stronger evidence for a quantum role in the apparent speedup? There’s a reason why academic quantum computing groups focus on pushing down decoherence and demonstrating entanglement in 2, 3, or 4 qubits: because that way, at least you know that the qubits are qubits! Suppose D-Wave were marketing a classical, special-purpose, $10-million computer designed to perform simulated annealing, for 90-bit Ising spin glass problems with a certain fixed topology, somewhat better than an off-the-shelf computing cluster. Would there be even 5% of the public interest that there is now?

1,130 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    How Andersen Cheng plans to defend against the quantum computer
    https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/business/quantum-computing-anderson-cheng-nomidio-hacking-a9587911.html

    Quantum computers are the future, but they’re also potentially dangerous – Post-Quantum was set up to find a way to ‘build a cage’ and stop it running wild, writes Andy Martin

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Quantum computing is on cusp of commercial breakthrough
    A Cambridge start-up’s operating system could lead to the creation of a software market
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/quantum-computing-is-on-cusp-of-commercial-breakthrough-8tgjjfsqj

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    New Protocol Corrects Errors Due to Qubit Loss – May Be Key to Development of Large-Scale Quantum Computers
    https://scitechdaily.com/new-protocol-corrects-errors-due-to-qubit-loss-may-be-key-to-development-of-large-scale-quantum-computers/

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Chinese claim Quantum Computer a million times more powerful than Google’s Sycamore
    September 13, 2020 The Quant
    https://quantumzeitgeist.com/chinese-claim-quantum-computer-a-million-times-more-powerful-than-googles-sycamore/

    If the tensions between the US are China are already inflamed, the recent news that China has built a much more powerful quantum computer is likely to cause much consternation. But it could lead to more investment flowing into US science and technology as Trump wants to see US at the forefront of the race for Quantum Dominance.

    In a claim echoing last year’s (2019) announcement from Google that the tech giant has achieved Quantum Supremacy, Chinese Physicist Pan Jianwei says his team achieved quantum supremacy but that ‘further verification’ is necessary. Quantum Supremacy means that an algorithm performed on a Quantum Computer can be done more effectively than on a classical machine.

    Google’s Sycamore machine used for the 2019 research performed its test of Quantum Supremacy in about 200 seconds, but that same algorithm could take a classical computer 10,000 years. The algorithm was not particularly useful, but that is besides the point

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IBM publishes its quantum roadmap, says it will have a 1,000-qubit machine in 2023
    https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/15/ibm-publishes-its-quantum-roadmap-says-it-will-have-a-1000-qubit-machine-in-2023/?tpcc=ECFB2020&fbclid=IwAR1qjHESXgmCch_eUJUa0An9L7C8FmMHtH-1SQr3NWlAzuf-A15R3cM4xKE

    IBM today, for the first time, published its road map for the future of its quantum computing hardware. There is a lot to digest here, but the most important news in the short term is that the company believes it is on its way to building a quantum processor with more than 1,000 qubits — and somewhere between 10 and 50 logical qubits — by the end of 2023.

    Currently, the company’s quantum processors top out at 65 qubits. It plans to launch a 127-qubit processor next year and a 433-qubit machine in 2022. To get to this point, IBM is also building a completely new dilution refrigerator to house these larger chips, as well as the technology to connect multiple of these units to build a system akin to today’s multi-core architectures in classical chips.

    “If you look at the difference of what it takes to build an industry as opposed to doing a project or doing scientific experiments and moving a field forward, we have had a philosophy that what we needed to do is to build a team that did three things well, in terms of cultures that have to come together. And that was a culture of science, a culture of the road map, and a culture of agile,” Gil said.

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Quantum for All
    https://physics.aps.org/articles/v13/143

    Propelling the development of quantum technologies will require widespread literacy about quantum concepts, and a commitment to diversity as a source of competitive advantage.

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Beyond high temperature superconductors, p-wave superconductors would be a big deal. The article mentions that one could use them to build Majorana qubits (Microsoft has a significant effort in this direction). The cool thing about Marjorana qubits is that they are hypothesized to be orders of magnitude less noisy than the current types of qubits (the quantum state there is a topological property).

    Researchers identify new type of superconductor
    https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/09/researchers-identify-new-type-superconductor

    Electrons in superconductors move together in what are known as Cooper pairs. This “pairing” endows superconductors with their most famous property – no electrical resistance – because, in order to generate resistance, the Cooper pairs have to be broken apart, and this takes energy.

    In s-wave superconductors – generally conventional materials, such as lead, tin and mercury – the Cooper pairs are made of one electron pointing up and one pointing down, both moving head-on toward each other, with no net angular momentum. In recent decades, a new class of exotic materials has exhibited what’s called d-wave superconductivity, whereby the Cooper pairs have two quanta of angular momentum.

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Commercialising quantum computers
    Today’s small, limited and finicky machines may yet have business uses
    https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/09/26/commercialising-quantum-computers

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    What it’s like to actually use Honeywell’s new quantum computer
    An exclusive look into programming on Honeywell’s new quantum computers.
    https://www.protocol.com/honeywell-quantum-computer

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
    D-Wave launches Advantage, a cloud service that offers access to 5,000+ qubit quantum computing and a hybrid solver service that can handle 1M variables

    D-Wave’s 5,000-qubit quantum computing platform handles 1 million variables
    https://venturebeat.com/2020/09/29/d-wave-advantage-quantum-computing-5000-qubits-1-million-variables/

    D-Wave today launched its next-generation quantum computing platform available via its Leap quantum cloud service. The company calls Advantage “the first quantum computer built for business.” In that vein, D-Wave today also debuted Launch, a jump-start program for businesses that want to begin building hybrid quantum applications.

    “The Advantage quantum computer is the first quantum computer designed and developed from the ground up to support business applications,” D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz told VentureBeat. “We engineered it to be able to deal with large, complex commercial applications and to be able to support the running of those applications in production environments. There is no other quantum computer anywhere in the world that can solve problems at the scale and complexity that this quantum computer can solve problems. It really is the only one that you can run real business applications on. The other quantum computers are primarily prototypes. You can do experimentation, run small proofs of concept, but none of them can support applications at the scale that we can.”

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Big Blue’s quantum ambitions are lofty. And reminiscent of the drive to reach the moon decades ago, it’s eager to reach its goal on a short time scale.

    IBM Envisions the Road to Quantum Computing Like an Apollo Mission
    https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/hardware/ibms-envisons-the-road-to-quantum-computing-like-an-apollo-mission

    At its virtual Quantum Computing Summit last week, IBM laid out its roadmap for the future of quantum computing. To illustrate the enormity of the task ahead of them, Jay Gambetta, IBM Fellow and VP, Quantum Computing, drew parallels between the Apollo missions and the next generation of Big Blue’s quantum computers.

    In a post published on the IBM Research blog, Gambetta said: “…like the Moon landing, we have an ultimate objective to access a realm beyond what’s possible on classical computers: we want to build a large-scale quantum computer.”

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Fortune:
    Startup IonQ unveils its next-gen quantum computing system, which it claims sets a new record of 4M+ for quantum volume, a common industry metric

    Startup IonQ drastically ups the quantum computing ante
    https://fortune.com/2020/10/01/ionq-quantum-computer-most-powerful-honeywell-ibm-google/

    IonQ says it has built the world’s most powerful quantum computer, as measured by a common industry metric.

    On a machine featuring 32 qubits—the quantum equivalent of classical computing’s bits—IonQ says it has achieved “an expected” quantum volume greater than 4 million. The figure vaults ahead of the previous record: a quantum volume of 128 announced just one day prior by Honeywell, the industrial conglomerate.

    Peter Chapman, IonQ’s chief executive, said that as the company releases newer iterations of its machines in the years ahead, updated measures will be required. “The number will become so large, we’ll have to leave quantum volume behind,” he said.

    Quantum volume attempts to grade quantum computers on a combination of metrics, including a machine’s number of qubits, their “connectivity,” and error rates. IBM, a rival quantum computing pioneer, introduced the yardstick three years ago in an effort to create a more holistic ranking system for quantum computing engineers.

    Qubits tend to be unstable, but in an ideal world each additional one adds exponential power to a quantum machine. Because of IonQ’s unique hardware design, it says it is able to tap into those exponential increases, helping push its machine far ahead of the pack, at least according to quantum volume.

    IonQ is tilting against tech giants many times the company’s size, such as IBM, Google, Honeywell, Intel, and Microsoft.

    The industry’s holy grail is to create general purpose quantum computers capable of solving presently incalculable problems. Google offered an early, arcane demonstration of the feat last year.

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    New detector breakthrough pushes boundaries of quantum computing
    https://phys.org/news/2020-09-detector-breakthrough-boundaries-quantum.html

    Physicists at Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Center of Finland have developed a new detector for measuring energy quanta at unprecedented resolution. This discovery could help bring quantum computing out of the laboratory and into real-world applications. The results have been published today in Nature.

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IQM staff publishes a quantum-computer breakthrough in Nature
    https://www.meetiqm.com/2020/09/30/quantum-breakthrough-in-nature/

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Future of the Quantum Computing Stack
    https://www.eetimes.com/the-future-of-the-quantum-computing-stack/

    Quantum Machines is offering a combination of classical hardware and software for the control and operation of quantum processors; the company calls it the Quantum Orchestration Platform. QOP has a software interface for programming.

    Quantum Machines is an Israeli startup, funded with a total of $22.5 million, led by groups such Battery Ventures, TLV Partners, Harel Insurance Group and Israeli investor Avigdor Willenz. It was founded by three PhDs in physics: Itamar Sivan, Yonatan Cohen, and Nissim Ofek. Facing the challenges of computing, they have directed their research toward quantum technologies.

    Quantum computers could solve very complex tasks that are far beyond the capabilities of conventional supercomputers but, unfortunately, quantum states are extremely sensitive to interference from the external environment. Reducing this interference is one of two big challenges for quantum computing. The other is the construction of efficient and scalable hardware. Many complex error correction strategies have been devised to solve these problems.

    The interest in quantum computing comes from the considerable amount of computing potential in quantum bits (qubits) which are exceedingly difficult to manage, both in terms of quantity and quality. Quantum Machines is developing new systems that aim to optimize the control of quantum systems.

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Quantum Computing is a Challenge for Cryptography
    https://www.eetimes.com/quantum-computing-is-a-challenge-for-cryptography/

    Quantum computing promises significant breakthroughs in science, medicine, financial strategies, and more, but it also has the power to blow right through current cryptography systems, therefore becoming a potential risk for a whole range of technologies, from the IoT to technologies that are supposedly hack-proof, like blockchain.

    Cryptography is everywhere — in messages from WhatsApp, online payments, eCommerce sites. Perhaps we cannot see it, but our data are transformed several times to avoid being tracked. “Simple” Wi-Fi is protected by the Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) protocol. Every credit card transaction is protected by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). These are different encryption methods with different mathematical problems to solve.

    In order to keep ahead of potential security problems, the length of the encryption keys is gradually increasing, and the algorithms are gradually becoming more sophisticated. The general principle is that the longer the key length, the more difficult it is for a brute force to attack and break it. These are attacks in which cyber criminals make thousands of attempts to force keys until they find the right one.

    All of this remains true with classic computers that operate with bits and bytes. If and when quantum computers that use qubits come into play, however, then the story changes. In the case of encryption keys, quantum computers are able to process an enormous number of potential results in parallel.

    Progress in quantum computing would jeopardize the use of PKI X.509 (RSA, ECDSA) certificates used today for authentication and digital signature algorithms: all must be protected by new quantum-resistant algorithms to remain secure.

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Suomalainen säteilynilmaisin voi mitata kubittien energiatiloja
    https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/11246-suomalainen-sateilynilmaisin-voi-mitata-kubittien-energiatiloja

    Aalto-yliopiston ja VTT:n tutkijat ovat kehittäneet uuden nanokokoisen säteilyilmaisimen, jolla voidaan mitata fotonien energiaa ja samalla määrittää kvanttitietokoneissa tarvittavien kubittien energiatila huomattavasti aiempaa tarkemmin ja nopeammin. Nanokokoista säteilyilmaisinta kutsutaan bolometriksi ja sen toiminta perustuu mitattavan säteilyn lämmittävään vaikutukseen.

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Market for Quantum Technology: Early Revenue-Generating Applications
    https://www.eetimes.com/the-market-for-quantum-technology-early-revenue-generating-applications/

    Quantum technology comprises quantum computing, quantum cryptography, quantum networking (the Quantum Internet) and quantum sensors. All of these sectors of quantum technology are already generating revenues today. Apart from quantum sensors, all are interrelated in important ways, with the prospect of commercial quantum computing driving much of the investment in the emerging quantum technology market. Quantum sensors use the sensitivity of quantum devices to increase the effectiveness of medical imagining, global positioning and other applications. They are real and with us today, but I won’t have much to say about them in this article

    Quantum Computing: State of Play
    As recently as two years ago articles were appearing from serious critics saying that quantum computers weren’t buildable in practice. Today, much of that skepticism has dissipated; tier-one firms are investing in quantum computing.

    Quantum computers or their components/access networks have already been developed by Alibaba, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Honeywell, and Intel. Also playing in this market are well-funded newer companies such as Rigetti, ionQ and D-Wave.

    The involvement of household names like IBM, Google or Amazon not only adds credibility to quantum computing but also spreads its fame. With such firms involved in this market, it is easy to get quantum computers onto the home pages of news outlets that ordinarily don’t cover advanced physics or supercomputing.

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Quantum Inspired Algorithm Going Back To The Source
    https://hackaday.com/2020/10/27/quantum-inspired-algorithm-going-back-to-the-source/

    Recently, [Jabrils] set out to accomplish a difficult task: porting a quantum-inspired algorithm to run on a (simulated) quantum computer. Algorithms are often inspired by all sorts of natural phenomena. For example, a solution to the traveling salesman problem models ants and their pheromone trails. Another famous example is neural nets, which are inspired by the neurons in your brain. However, attempting to run a machine learning algorithm on your neurons, even with the assistance of pen and paper would be a nearly impossible exercise.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe_7b9pRKY8

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Quantum-computing pioneer warns of complacency over Internet security
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03068-9

    Nature talks to Peter Shor 25 years after he showed how to make quantum computations feasible — and how they could endanger our data.

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Optical wiring for large quantum computers
    https://phys.org/news/2020-10-optical-wiring-large-quantum.html

    Researchers at ETH have demonstrated a new technique for carrying out sensitive quantum operations on atoms. In this technique, the control laser light is delivered directly inside a chip. This should make it possible to build large-scale quantum computers based on trapped atoms.

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Quantum Tunnels Show How Particles Can Break the Speed of Light
    By
    NATALIE WOLCHOVER
    October 20, 2020

    https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-tunnel-shows-particles-can-break-the-speed-of-light-20201020/

    Recent experiments show that particles should be able to go faster than light when they quantum mechanically “tunnel” through walls.

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Novel Quantum Circuit Calculates Fourier Transform Faster and More Efficiently
    https://scitechdaily.com/novel-quantum-circuit-calculates-fourier-transform-faster-and-more-efficiently/

    Scientists design a novel quantum circuit that calculates the fast Fourier transform, an indispensable tool in all fields of engineering

    Though quantum computing remains an enormous technical and intellectual challenge, it has the potential to speed up many programs and algorithms immensely provided that appropriate quantum circuits are designed. In particular, the Fourier transform already has a quantum version called the quantum Fourier transform (QFT), but its applicability is quite limited because its results cannot be used in subsequent quantum arithmetic operations.

    To address this issue, in a recent study published in Quantum Information Processing, scientists from Tokyo University of Science developed a new quantum circuit that executes the “quantum fast Fourier transform (QFFT)” and fully benefits from the peculiarities of the quantum world.

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Scientists create single-atom devices to supercharge computers
    https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/scientists-create-single-atom-devices-to-supercharge-computers

    Researchers devise groundbreaking new methods to create and duplicate single-atom transistors for quantum computers.

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    World’s record entanglement storage sets up a milestone for Quantum Internet Alliance
    https://phys.org/news/2020-10-world-entanglement-storage-milestone-alliance.html

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Fyysikot onnistuivat kuljettamaan valoa – ”Pakkasimme valon matkalaukkuun”, sitten sitä siirrettiin, ja lopuksi valo otettiin ulos
    https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/fyysikot-onnistuivat-kuljettamaan-valoa-pakkasimme-valon-matkalaukkuun-siirsimme-sita-ja-otimme-valon-ulos/

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Reality Does Not Depend on the Measurer According to New Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
    https://scitechdaily.com/reality-does-not-depend-on-the-measurer-according-to-new-interpretation-of-quantum-mechanics/

    For 100 years scientists have disagreed on how to interpret quantum mechanics. A recent study by Jussi Lindgren and Jukka Liukkonen supports an interpretation that is close to classical scientific principles.

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Generating photons for communication in a quantum computing system
    https://phys.org/news/2020-10-photons-quantum.html

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    A new spin on atoms gives scientists a closer look at quantum weirdness
    https://phys.org/news/2020-10-atoms-scientists-closer-quantum-weirdness.html

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Research team discovers uniquely quantum effect in erasing information
    https://phys.org/news/2020-10-team-uniquely-quantum-effect-erasing.html

    Reply

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