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.
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
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12535-ruotsalaiskeksintoe-voi-vauhdittaa-kvanttitietokoneiden-kehitystae
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jan-Rainer Lahmann’s RasQberry Is a Raspberry Pi-Powered IBM Quantum System One for Your Desk
https://www.hackster.io/news/jan-rainer-lahmann-s-rasqberry-is-a-raspberry-pi-powered-ibm-quantum-system-one-for-your-desk-fe770e999116
Designed for demonstrating quantum computing concepts, this functional model is considerably cheaper than the real thing.
IBM’s Jan-Rainer Lahmann has found a neat way to showcase the company’s open source Qiskit quantum computing framework: a functional 3D-printed model of a real IBM Quantum System One, powered by a Raspberry Pi.
“‘RasQberry integrates Qiskit (an open source quantum computing software framework by IBM), a Raspberry Pi (the full range from Pi 4 down to a Pi Zero), and a 3D-printed model of a real quantum computer (IBM Quantum System One) to explore various state of the art technologies,” Lahmann explains of the project.
While the miniaturised quantum computer certainly serves as a talking point, its purpose is more than to brighten up a desk. “[It is designed to] create a tool that can be used in meetings, meetups, demo booths, etc,” Lahmann writes.
Lahmann has made the RasQberry project open source, publishing source code and 3D print files under the permissive Apache License 2.0 to the project’s GitHub repository. Anyone just wanting to play with the software, meanwhile, will also find full instructions for installation and setup on an otherwise-unmodified Raspberry Pi.
https://github.com/JanLahmann/RasQberry
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.inceptivemind.com/china-demonstrates-world-most-powerful-quantum-computer-zuchongzhi/19990/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Computing: Triple Qubit Entanglement Achieved in Research Breakthrough
Another step on the road towards quantum scalability
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/quantum-computing-triple-qubit-entanglement-achieved
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Computing Breakthrough: Entanglement of Three Spin Qubits Achieved in Silicon
https://scitechdaily.com/quantum-computing-breakthrough-entanglement-of-three-spin-qubits-achieved-in-silicon/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jan-Rainer Lahmann’s RasQberry Is a Raspberry Pi-Powered IBM Quantum System One for Your Desk
Designed for demonstrating quantum computing concepts, this functional model is considerably cheaper than the real thing.
https://www.hackster.io/news/jan-rainer-lahmann-s-rasqberry-is-a-raspberry-pi-powered-ibm-quantum-system-one-for-your-desk-fe770e999116
Tomi Engdahl says:
Competing Visions Underpin China’s Quantum Computer Race Alibaba builds their own qubits, Baidu remains quantum hardware-agnostic
https://spectrum.ieee.org/alibaba-baidu-quantum-computer-race
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Achieve Major Breakthrough in Quantum Computer Scalability
The researchers used silicon quantum dots to achieve a three-qubit state.
https://interestingengineering.com/researchers-achieve-major-breakthrough-in-quantum-computer-scalability
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing is at an early stage. But investors are already getting excited
VC funds are investing aggressively in quantum computing startups, even though the technology is yet to demonstrate that it can do anything useful in real life.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/quantum-computing-is-at-an-early-stage-but-investors-are-already-getting-excited/
Tomi Engdahl says:
For The First Time, Scientists Have Entangled Three Qubits on Silicon
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-entangled-three-qubits-in-silicon-for-the-first-time
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Horizon Plans To Bring Quantum Computing Out Of The Shadows
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidprosser/2021/09/10/how-horizon-plans-to-bring-quantum-computing-out-of-the-shadows/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing hits the desktop, no cryo-cooling required
https://newatlas.com/quantum-computing/quantum-computing-desktop-room-temperature/
An Australian/German company is developing powerful quantum accelerators the size of graphics cards. They work at room temperature, undercutting and outperforming today’s huge, cryo-cooled quantum supercomputers, and soon they’ll be small enough for mobile devices.
Superconducting quantum computers are huge and incredibly finicky machines at this point. They need to be isolated from anything that might knock an electron’s spin off and ruin a calculation. That includes mechanical isolation, in extreme vacuum chambers, where only a few molecules might remain in a cubic meter or two of space. It includes electromagnetic forces – IBM, for example, surrounds its precious quantum bits, or qubits, with mu metals to absorb all magnetic fields.
And it includes temperature. Any atom with a temperature above absolute zero is by definition in a state of vibration, and any temperature more than 10-15 thousandths of a degree above absolute zero simply shakes the qubits to the poin where they can’t maintain “coherence.” So most state-of-the-art quantum computers need to be cryogenically cooled
Extreme vacuums, mu metals and microkelvin-temperature cryogenic cooling: this is not a recipe for affordable, portable or easily scalable quantum computing power. But an Australian-born startup says it has developed a quantum microprocessor that needs none of these things.
Quantum Brilliance was founded in 2019 on the back of research undertaken by its founders at the Australian National University, where they developed techniques to manufacture, scale and control qubits embedded in synthetic diamond.
“Room-temperature diamond quantum computers consist of an array of processor nodes. Each processor node is comprised of a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center (a defect in the diamond lattice consisting of a substitutional nitrogen atom adjacent to a vacancy) and a cluster of nuclear spins: the intrinsic nitrogen nuclear spin and up to ~4 nearby 13C nuclear spin impurities. The nuclear spins act as the qubits of the computer, whilst the NV centers act as quantum buses that mediate the initialization and readout of the qubits, and intra-and inter-node multi-qubit operations. Quantum computation is controlled via radiofrequency, microwave, optical and magnetic fields.”
This field itself is not new – indeed, room-temperature quantum qubits have been around experimentally for more than 20 years.
“The fundamental property we’re using,” says new hire Mark Mattingley-Scott, who will oversee operations for the company in Germany, “is nuclear spin, and not the spin of an electron.
The company has already built a number of “Quantum development kits” in rack units, each with around 5 qubits to work with
Tomi Engdahl says:
Russian Scientists Use Supercomputer To Probe Limits of Google’s Quantum Processor
https://scitechdaily.com/russian-scientists-use-supercomputer-to-probe-limits-of-googles-quantum-processor/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing hits the desktop, no cryo-cooling required
https://newatlas.com/quantum-computing/quantum-computing-desktop-room-temperature/
An Australian/German company is developing powerful quantum accelerators the size of graphics cards. They work at room temperature, undercutting and outperforming today’s huge, cryo-cooled quantum supercomputers, and soon they’ll be small enough for mobile devices.
Superconducting quantum computers are huge and incredibly finicky machines at this point. They need to be isolated from anything that might knock an electron’s spin off and ruin a calculation. That includes mechanical isolation, in extreme vacuum chambers, where only a few molecules might remain in a cubic meter or two of space. It includes electromagnetic forces – IBM, for example, surrounds its precious quantum bits, or qubits, with mu metals to absorb all magnetic fields.
But an Australian-born startup says it has developed a quantum microprocessor that needs none of these things. Indeed, it runs happily at room temperature. Right now, it’s the size of a rack unit. Soon, it’ll be the size of a decent graphics card, and before too long it’ll be small enough to fit in mobile devices alongside traditional processors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/major-quantum-computing-strategy-suffers-serious-setbacks-20210929/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90680174/ibm-ceo-quantum-computing-will-take-off-like-a-rocket-ship-this-decade
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing hits the stock market
https://www.axios.com/ionq-quantum-computing-trading-e5659963-f2f8-468d-9571-c5a0f912befa.html
IonQ on Friday became the first quantum computing hardware company to go public, via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Why it matters: Quantum represents the next generation of computing, and while the industry is likely still years away from producing widely reliable hardware, IonQ’s performance should be an indicator of how the market views the technology’s potential.
What’s happening: IonQ began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday morning, and it ended the day down about 10%.
Its roster of investors includes Google Ventures, Amazon Web Services and Bill Gates’ climate fund Breakthrough Energy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Quantum computer algorithms are linear algebra, probabilities. This is not something that we do a good job of teaching our kids’
Assuming tech works as promised, overhaul needed in policy and supplies, panel says
https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/01/quantum_computing_future/
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that quantum computers will exist in some useful fashion in the not too distant future.
And if that is the case, fundamental changes will be needed in education, supply chains, and national policies for us to use the machines to solve complex problems, panelists said a forum hosted by R Street Institute this week.
“We need … to prepare people to think about computation in a fundamentally different way,” said Chris Fall, senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, during the discussion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://newatlas.com/quantum-computing/quantum-computing-desktop-room-temperature/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Brian Cox explains quantum mechanics in 60 seconds – BBC News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcfQkxwz4Oo
British physicist Brian Cox is challenged by the presenter of Radio 4′s ‘Life Scientific’, Jim Al-Khalili, to explain the rules of quantum mechanics in just a minute. Brian succeeds; while conceding that the idea that everything is inherently probabilistic, is challenging. Even Einstein found it difficult.
Tomi Engdahl says:
There are two types of quantum computing. Now one company says it wants to offer both
D-Wave has unveiled a roadmap for the next few years, and it includes a brand-new project: to build a gate model quantum computer.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/there-are-two-types-of-quantum-computing-now-d-wave-says-it-will-offer-both/
Quantum computing company D-Wave is setting ambitious targets for itself in the next few years. In a new roadmap called Clarity, the company has committed to becoming the first provider of both quantum annealers and gate model quantum computers – and if it delivers, it could make big waves in the industry.
Clarity effectively expands on D-Wave’s current offering, which is limited to cloud-based superconducting quantum annealers, to start including a superconducting gate model quantum computer – similar to the ones developed by tech giants such as IBM and Google – in the next couple of years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
QUANTUM COMPUTER BREAKTHROUGH AS SCIENTISTS SHOW VITAL BEHAVIOUR FOR FIRST TIME
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/quantum-computer-latest-breakthrough-error-b1932005.html
Scientists have demonstrated new behaviour, vital for the creation of quantum computers, that marks a major breakthrough.
For the first time, researchers were able to show in an experiment that a variety of quantum computing pieces, taken together, were more accurate than the sum of their parts.
Individually, quantum computers are built out of a range of different pieces, some of which can sometimes break. But in the new experiment, scientists showed that those pieces stuck together can be less prone to error than any particular part.
Such behaviour will be necessary if quantum computers are ever relied on for practical purposes. Scientists suggest that the technology could one day change the world – by allowing us to do calculations more quickly than ever thought possible – but fundamental work like this must first be conducted to ensure those calculations are trustworthy.
In the research, scientists took a number of qubits, or the quantum version of bits, and put them together into a single thing called a “logical qubit”. That was assembled so that it could easily detect and correct errors, as well as able to tolerate faults so that any bad effects could be minimised.
That allowed scientists to show that the logical qubit was more trustworthy than the most error-prone part of the process of making it. It worked as expected 99.4 per cent of the time, despite the fact it relied on six different quantum operations that only worked about 98.9 per cent of the time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing startups pull in millions as VCs rush to get ahead of the game
Now they just have to make it work…
https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/08/quantum_computing_startups/
Venture capital firms are pouring billions into quantum computing companies, hedging bets that the technology will pay off big time some day.
Rigetti, which makes quantum hardware, announced a $1.5bn merger with Supernova Partners Acquisition Company II, a finance house focusing on strategic acquisitions. Rigetti, which was valued at $1.04bn before the deal, will now be publicly traded.
Before Rigetti’s deal, quantum computer hardware and software companies raked in close to $1.02bn from venture capital investments this year, according to numbers provided to The Register by financial research firm PitchBook. That was a significant increase from $684m invested by VC firms in 2020, and $188m in 2019.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Physicists Create New Technique To Control Qubits – The Building Blocks of Quantum Computing
https://scitechdaily.com/physicists-create-new-technique-to-control-qubits-the-building-blocks-of-quantum-computing/
The techniques, described in the journal Nature, involve the use of trapped-ion quantum bits, or qubits, in quantum computing and simulations. They could lead to improvements in the operation of quantum computers, which still make too many computation errors to be effective tools, the physicists said.
The problem with quantum computers is that their logic gates — the tools used to perform basic logic functions in computing — “are really bad,” Allcock said.
“They fail about 1 percent of the time,” he said. “You can do about 100 (operations), then you get garbage out.”
Wineland added, “The whole field is in a stage now, because of errors that exist, that we can’t do lengthy calculations or simulations of practical value on our machines.”
The goal is to get to 10,000 operations without error and then add layers of checks to fix the errors as they happen, he said.
Wineland said trapped ions are like a bowl of marbles that have certain magnetic properties. Physicists can apply forces to the ions with different methods, including lasers, Allcock said. But lasers are expensive and complex machines, whereas making logic gates using magnetic forces is cheaper and more practical because they can be generated directly with integrated circuits, he said.
“What we did here is show these techniques work as well as anyone has done logic gates before,” he said.
If physicists and engineers can make quantum computers reliable and able to operate with large enough capacity, they could simulate other systems, Wineland said. For example, a quantum computer could simulate the action of a molecule used in drug therapy without having to synthesize it in a lab.
“There are some very practical, useful outcomes,” Wineland said. “We’re just scratching the surface.”
Quantum computing has been around since about 1995, when a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology named Peter Shor came up with an algorithm using quantum logic ideas that could efficiently break large numbers into a set of simpler equations, a process known as factoring, Wineland said. That was important because most modern encryption algorithms derive their security from the inability to factorize large numbers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Investors are dumping money into quantum computing firms in hopes of a big payday
“We are probably still in the vacuum-tube era equivalent for quantum computers”
https://www.techspot.com/news/91695-investors-dumping-money-quantum-computing-firms-hopes-big.html
What just happened? Investors are pumping money into quantum computing firms at an accelerated rate in hopes of a big payday down the road. According to financial research firm PitchBook, outfits that deal in quantum computer hardware and software have brought in nearly $1.02 billion from venture capitalists this year alone. That’s up from $684 million generated in 2020 and just $188 million in 2019, and doesn’t even count a recent development in the industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Breakthrough proof clears path for quantum AI
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-breakthrough-proof-path-quantum-ai.html
Convolutional neural networks running on quantum computers have generated significant buzz for their potential to analyze quantum data better than classical computers can. While a fundamental solvability problem known as “barren plateaus” has limited the application of these neural networks for large data sets, new research overcomes that Achilles heel with a rigorous proof that guarantees scalability.
“The way you construct a quantum neural
network can lead to a barren plateau—or not,” said Marco Cerezo, co-author of the paper titled “Absence of Barren Plateaus in Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks,” published today by a Los Alamos National Laboratory team in
Physical Review X. Cerezo is a physicist specializing in quantum computing, quantum machine learning, and quantum information at Los Alamos. “We proved the absence of barren plateaus for a special type of quantum neural network. Our work provides trainability guarantees for this architecture, meaning that one can generically train its parameters.”
As an artificial intelligence (AI) methodology, quantum convolutional neural networks are inspired by the visual cortex. As such, they involve a series of convolutional layers, or filters, interleaved with pooling layers that reduce the dimension of the data while keeping important features of a data set.
These neural networks can be used to solve a range of problems, from image recognition to materials discovery
Tomi Engdahl says:
Two Chinese teams claim to have reached primacy with quantum computers
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-chinese-teams-primacy-quantum.html
The Pan team’s optical quantum computer uses a 144-mode interferometer to solve a Gaussian boson sampling problem with a factor-of-1024 speedup in computational time relative to a classical computer. Credit: Chao-Yang Lu/University of Science and Technology of China, via Physics
Two teams in China are claiming that they have reached primacy with their individual quantum computers. Both have published the details of their work in the journal Physical Review Letters
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese researchers achieve quantum advantage in two mainstream routes
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202110/1237312.shtml#.YXpDK3m2DZQ.facebook
Chinese research teams have made marked progress in superconducting quantum computing and photonics quantum computing technology, making China the only country to achieve quantum computational advantage in two mainstream technical routes, while the US has only achieved a “quantum advantage” in superconducting quantum computing, analysts say.
Quantum advantage is a scientific concept that states a quantum computer can do things in some fields beyond the capability of non-quantum or classical computers, but it will never replace classical computers, Yuan Lanfeng, a research fellow at the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Innovative Chip Resolves Quantum Headache – Paves Road to Supercomputer of the Future
https://scitechdaily.com/innovative-chip-resolves-quantum-headache-paves-road-to-supercomputer-of-the-future/
Quantum physicists at the University of Copenhagen are reporting an international achievement for Denmark in the field of quantum technology. By simultaneously operating multiple spin qubits on the same quantum chip, they surmounted a key obstacle on the road to the supercomputer of the future. The result bodes well for the use of semiconductor materials as a platform for solid-state quantum computers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A team of researchers from China have created a superconducting quantum processor with 66 functional qubits.
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/chinese-scientists-create-quantum-processor-60000-times-faster-than-current-supercomputers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Early Investor In Twitch Explains Why He’s Betting Big On Quantum Computing
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevindowd/2021/10/31/an-early-investor-in-twitch-explains-why-hes-betting-big-on–quantum-computing/
David Cowan had already been an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners for 20 years when he came across an upstart company that was rapidly building an audience around a novel idea: Watching other people play video games. The company was called Twitch. Shortly thereafter, Cowan and Bessemer led a $15 million Series B investment in the business. Less than two years later, Amazon came calling with an acquisition offer Twitch and Cowan couldn’t refuse. It was, in many ways, the dream scenario for a venture capitalist.
But it wasn’t long before Cowan began to have regrets.
“I invested in the company at like a $65 million pre-money (valuation),” Cowan says today. “And then 18 months later I had the opportunity to sell it for a billion dollars. And I thought, ‘Hurray.” And that was a big mistake. Because, you know, only two years later, the company was clearly worth $10 billion.
“I’d say the biggest lesson of that was that I had to recalibrate my expectations for what successful companies can do.”
Suffice it to say that quantum computers are a new kind of machine that exploits the inherent strangeness of very small particles to perform immensely complicated calculations, with the potential to be trillions of times more powerful than current supercomputers.
If the industry fulfills that potential, Cowan believes the consequences will be incredible.
“I mean, simply put, curing cancer,” he said.
Perhaps the most exciting applications of quantum computing are in medicine. There are trillions of atoms in each cell and trillions of cells in the human body, all interacting with each other in an unceasing biological dance. Current superconductors are seriously powerful machines, but unspooling that kind of choreography is beyond their reach.
It’s also beyond the reach of modern quantum computers. The technology for these machines is still in its adolescence. Theoretically, though, a quantum computer could map the way molecules and data points interact in previously unimaginable ways. And doctors and researchers could use those maps to find new therapies and cures.
The potential is equally vast in a wide range of other industries.
“It’s not going to change how you get your scoop of ice cream from the local store,” Cowan said. “But anything that requires machine learning or optimization, or certainly anything that requires an understanding of physics—like biology, chemistry, materials—anything that involves simulation, like designing airplanes or cars, anything that uses heavy computation, which of course is lots and lots of interesting industries—all of those will get a huge boost.”
Different companies are trying to build quantum computers in different ways. Rigetti’s technology is based in superconducting qubits—“qubits” being the quantum computing analog to the “bits” in a traditional computer.
In Cowan’s view, Rigetti is engaged in a three-way race for supremacy in the superconductor space. You might have heard of its two rivals: Google and IBM.
It will be a while before we find out one way or the other. Quantum computers aren’t going to fully replace modern supercomputers any time soon. The technology is still developing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computers: Eight ways quantum computing is going to change the world
https://www.zdnet.com/article/quantum-computers-eight-ways-quantum-computing-is-going-to-change-the-world/
Businesses are already exploring the future potential of quantum computers, and some industries anticipate big changes ahead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chinese Scientists Create Quantum Processor 60,000 Times Faster Than Current Supercomputers
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/chinese-scientists-create-quantum-processor-60000-times-faster-than-current-supercomputers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing: IBM just created this new way to measure the speed of quantum processors
Big Blue has released a new metric, CLOPS, which puts a number on the speed of a quantum computer.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/quantum-computing-this-is-how-ibm-is-now-measuring-the-speed-of-its-quantum-processors/
Tomi Engdahl says:
A New Quantum Computing Method Is 2,500 Percent More Efficient
And it’s ‘absolutely amazing.’
https://interestingengineering.com/a-new-quantum-computing-method-is-2500-percent-more-efficient
We just moved years closer to viable quantum computers.
A company has revealed the results of benchmarking experiments that demonstrate how an advanced error-suppression method increased the probability of success for quantum computing algorithms to succeed on real hardware, according to a press release shared with Interesting Engineering via email.
And the new method increased the likelihood of success by an unprecedented 2,500%.
A quantum computing breakthrough just brought applications years closer
Today, most quantum computers can only handle the simplest and shortest algorithms, since they’re so wildly error-prone. And in recent algorithmic benchmarking experiments executed by the U.S. Quantum Economic Development Consortium, the errors observed in hardware systems during tests were so serious that the computers gave outputs statistically indiscernible from random chance.
That’s not something you want from your computer.
But by employing specialized software to alter the building blocks of quantum algorithms, which are called “quantum logic gates,” the company Q-CTRL discovered a way to reduce the computational errors by an unprecedented level, according to the release.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum Physicists Set “Ultrabroadband” Record With Entangled Photons
https://scitechdaily.com/quantum-physicists-set-ultrabroadband-record-with-entangled-photons/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a novel radio frequency control system enhances quantum computers
https://phys.org/news/2021-11-radio-frequency-quantum.html
A team of physicists and engineers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) successfully demonstrated the feasibility of low-cost and high-performance radio frequency modules for qubit controls at room temperature. They built a series of compact radio frequency (RF) modules that mix signals to improve the reliability of control systems for superconducting quantum processors. Their tests proved that using modular design methods reduces the cost and size of traditional RF control systems while still delivering superior or comparable performance levels to those commercially available.
A Question of Scale
Despite significant advances in building processors with more qubits, which will ultimately be needed to demonstrate a quantum advantage over classical computers, quantum computers continue to be noisy and error-prone. Each additional qubit introduces new layers of complexity and possibilities for electrical failure, especially at room temperature. This growth in complexity and computing power requires a rethinking of certain core control elements.
Traditional RF control systems use analog circuits to control superconducting qubits, but they can become bulky and overwhelmingly complex, thus serving as a potential point of failure and increasing the costs for hardware control. AQT researchers Gang Huang and Yilun Xu from Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division (ATAP) demonstrated a new way to control qubits that is already enhancing other quantum computing projects at the testbed’s user program. The team substituted the larger, more costly traditional RF control systems for one built at Berkeley Lab, which uses smaller interactive mixing modules.
A key aspect of this modular system is delivering high-resolution, low-noise RF signals needed to manipulate and measure the superconducting qubit at room temperature. To do so, it’s important to shift the qubit manipulation and measurement signal frequency between the electronics baseband and the quantum system.
“The new module exhibits low-noise, high-reliability operation and is now becoming our laboratory standard for microwave frequency modulation/demodulation across many different experimental configurations in AQT,” Huang explained.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creating Time Crystals Using New Quantum Computing Architectures
https://scitechdaily.com/creating-time-crystals-using-new-quantum-computing-architectures/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientific Honesty And Quantum Computing’s Latest Theoretical Hurdle
https://hackaday.com/2021/11/11/scientific-honesty-and-quantum-computings-latest-theoretical-hurdle/
Quantum computers are really in their infancy. If you created a few logic gates with tubes back in the 1930s, it would be difficult to predict all the ways we would use computers today. However, you could probably guess where at least some of the problems would lie in the future. One of the things we are pretty sure will limit quantum computer development is error correction.
As far as we know, every quantum qubit we’ve come up with so far is very fragile and prone to random errors. That’s why every practical design today incorporates some sort of QEC — quantum error correction. Of course, error correction isn’t news. We use it all the time on unreliable storage media or communication channels and high-reliability memory. The problem is, you can’t directly clone a qubit (a quantum bit), so it is hard to use traditional error correction techniques with qubits.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_error_correction
Tomi Engdahl says:
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
IBM debuts 127-qubit Eagle quantum processor coming to select members of the IBM Quantum Network in December, and previews next-gen IBM Quantum System Two
IBM launches 127-qubit Eagle quantum processor, previews IBM Quantum System Two
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-launches-127-qubit-eagle-quantum-processor-previews-ibm-quantum-system-two/
According to IBM, Eagle leverages new techniques that place control components on multiple physical levels while keeping qubits on a single layer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kvanttitietokoneen suorituskykyä voidaan nyt mitata
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12829-kvanttitietokoneen-suorituskykyae-voidaan-nyt-mitata
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM kasvatti kubittien määrän 127:een uudella kvanttipiirillään
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12832-ibm-kasvatti-kubittien-maeaeraen-127-een-uudella-kvanttipiirillaeaen
IBM on esitellyt uuden sukupolven kvanttipiirinsä. Vain reilu vuosi 65-kubittisen Hummingbird-suorittimen jälkeen yhtiön esitteli IBM Quantum Summit 2021 -tapahtumassa Eagle-suorittimen, jossa on 127 kubittia.
Eagle-suorittimessa hyödynnetään edeltäjistä Falconista ja Hummingbirdistä saatuja oppeja, kuten virheitä vähentävää kubittijärjestelyä ja arkkitehtuuria, jolla voidaan minimoida tarvittavien komponenttien määrä. Suorittimen kehittyessä täytyy myös järjestelmien kehittyä. IBM Quantum System Two on suunniteltu toimimaan tulevien 433- ja 1 121-kubittisten suorittimien kanssa.
Eagle-suorittimen myötä olemme siirtyneet kehitysvaiheeseen, jossa kvanttipiirejä ei enää voi luotettavasti simuloida perinteisillä järjestelmillä. Suorittimessa hyödynnettävät uudet tekniikat mahdollistavat ohjausjohtimien sijoittamisen sirulla eri fyysiseen kerrokseen kuin missä kubitit sijaitsevat. Tämä toteutus mahdollistaa kubittien määrän merkittävän lisäämisen laskennan laadun kärsimättä.
Kvanttitietokoneen suorituskykyä voidaan nyt mitata
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12829-kvanttitietokoneen-suorituskykyae-voidaan-nyt-mitata
Kvanttitietokoneet tulevat mullistamaan monet laskennat, joihin klassiset koneet voisivat käyttää vuosia tai jopa paljon pidempiä aikoja. Mutta kuinka tehokas kvanttitietokone on ja miten sen suorituskykyä voidaan mitata? Kvanttikoneiden pioneeri IBM on nyt kehittänyt oman menetelmän kvanttikoneen tehon määrittämiseen.
Uusi termi on nimeltään CLOPS (Circuit Layer Operations Per Second) ja se mittaa kvanttipiirioperaatioiden määrää sekunnissa. Jotta kvanttikoneen suorituskyvyn voisi määritellä, pitää ottaa huomioon kubittien määrä, piirien laatua kuvaava kvanttivolyymi ja CLOPS-suorituskyky, IBM:n kvanttitekniikan asiantuntija Teppo Seesto selventää.
- Skaalautuminen eli kubittien lukumäärä määrittää kuinka suuri ratkaisuavaruus meillä on käytössä. Tosin yhteenkin kubittiin voidaan asettaa useita parametreja eli ratkaisuavaruuden koko ei ole aina yksi yhteen kubittien määrän kanssa. Kvanttivolyymi kuvaa kuinka isoa ohjelman pätkää voidaan yhdellä kertaa suorittaa ja laatu ohjaa tätä. CLOPS taas kuvaa suorittamisen nopeutta. Kullakin kvanttialgoritmilla ja -ohjelmalla on omat vaatimukset näiden suhteen, mutta kaikkien kehitystä tarvitaan, jotta saadaan käyttökelpoisia ohjelmia, Seesto sanoo.
Hänen mukaansa CLOPS-metriikka mittaa aikaa, jonka aikana pitää suorittaa tietyt operaatiot. Tämä aika sitten kääntyy operaatiota sekunnissa -muotoon. – Pohjana on kvanttivolyymin mittauksessa käytetty kvanttipiiri, jota ajetaan testissä moneen kertaan dynaamisesti muuttuvilla parametreilla. Mitattuun aikaan sisältyy kubittien uudelleen initialisointi, porttien suoritusnopeus, ajonaikainen koodin kääntäminen, ohjaussignaalien luonti ja datan siirto klassisen koneen ja kvanttikoneen välillä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM:ltä 127-kubitin kvanttisuoritin
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/11/16/ibmlta-127-kubitin-kvanttisuoritin/
Runsaan vuoden edellisen kvanttipiirijulkistuksen jälkeen IBM esittele uuden 127-kubittisen Eagle-suorittimen. Siinä hyödynnetään edeltäjistä Falconista ja Hummingbirdistä saatuja oppeja, kuten virheitä vähentävää kubittijärjestelyä ja arkkitehtuuria, joka minimoi komponenttien määrän. Järjestelmäratkaisu luvataan parin vuoden sisällä.
Uuden Eagle-suorittimen myötä ollaan siirrytty IBM:n mukaan myös kehitysvaiheeseen, jossa kvanttipiirejä ei enää voi luotettavasti simuloida perinteisillä järjestelmillä. Uudessa ratkaisussa ohjausjohtimia on sijoitettu sirulla eri fyysisiin kerroksiin kuin missä kubitit sijaitsevat.
Tämä toteutus mahdollistaa kubittien määrän merkittävän lisäämisen laskennan laadun kärsimättä. Jos 127-kubittisen suorittimen tilaa kuvattaisiin perinteisillä biteillä, niitä olisi enemmän kuin maailman 7,5 miljardissa ihmisessä on atomeja yhteensä. Vuoden 2019 Falconissa oli 27 ja vuoden 2020 Hummingbirdissä 65 kubiittia.
Eagle-suorittimen kasvanut kubittien määrä antaa mahdollisuuden myös tutkia kohteita aivan uudella tasolla ja sallia aiempaa kompleksisemmat kokeelliset menetelmät ja sovellutukset. Niitä voivat olla esimerkiksi koneoppimisen optimointi tai uusien molekyylien ja materiaalien mallintaminen.
https://research.ibm.com/blog/127-qubit-quantum-processor-eagle
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2297583-ibm-creates-largest-ever-superconducting-quantum-computer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum computing skills are hard to find. Here’s how companies are tackling the shortage
There’s a lot of promise in quantum computing, but companies first need to figure out how they can attract more people into the industry.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/quantum-computing-skills-are-hard-to-find-heres-how-companies-are-tackling-the-shortage/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creating Dynamic Symmetry in Diamond Crystals To Improve Qubits for Quantum Computing
https://scitechdaily.com/creating-dynamic-symmetry-in-diamond-crystals-to-improve-qubits-for-quantum-computing/amp/
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM Announces 127-qubit “Eagle” Quantum Processor
By Francisco Pires 5 days ago
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ibm-127-qubit-eagle-quantum-processor
IBM expects to achieve a 1,121-qubit quantum processor – and quantum advantage – by 2023.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kvanttikone on tavallista tehokkaampi kahdessa vuodessa
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/12862-kvanttikone-on-tavallista-tehokkaampi-kahdessa-vuodessa
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2021/11/25/uusi-materiaaliyhdistelma-kvanttitietoikoneisiin/