Quantum computing is a new generation of technology that involves a type of computer 158 million times faster than the most sophisticated supercomputer we have in the world today. It’s such a powerful device that it could do in four minutes what a traditional supercomputer would take 10,000 years to accomplish.
For decades our computers they have all been built around the same design. Whether it’s NASA’s huge machines or its laptop at home, everyone is essentially a glorified calculator, but more importantly, they can only do one thing at a time.
The key to the operation of all computers is that they process and store information made up of binary digits called bits. These bits only have two possible values, a one or a zero. It is these numbers that create the binary code, which a computer needs to read to carry out a specific task, according to the book. basics of computers.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum theory is a branch of physics that deals with the tiny world of atoms and the smallest (subatomic) particles within them, according to the journal Documenta Mathematica. When you enter this tiny world, the laws of physics are very different from what we see around us. For example, quantum particles can exist in multiple states at the same time. This is known as overlap.
Instead of bits, quantum computers use something called quantum bits, ‘qubits’ for short. While a traditional bit can only be one or zero, a qubit can be one, zero or both at the same time, according to an article published in IEEE International Conference on Big Data.
This means that a quantum computer doesn’t have to wait for one process to finish before it can start another, it can do it at the same time.
Imagine that you have many doors that are all closed except one, and you need to know which one is open. A traditional computer would keep trying each door, one after another, until it found the one that was open. It could take five minutes, it could take a million years, depending on how many gates there are. But a quantum computer could test all the gates at once. This is what makes them so much faster.
In addition to superposition, quantum particles also exhibit another strange behavior called tangle which also makes this technology potentially innovative. When two quantum particles become entangled, they form a connection with each other no matter how far apart they are. When you modify one, the other responds in the same way, even if they are thousands of miles apart. Einstein called this particle property “spooky action at a distance,” according to the magazine Nature.
Design limitations
Besides speed, another advantage quantum computers have over traditional computers is size. According Moore’s Lawcomputing power doubles roughly every two years, according to the magazine IEEE Annals of Computing History. But to allow this, engineers you have to fit more and more transistors on a circuit board. A transistor is like a microscopic light switch that can be on or off. This is how a computer processes a zero or a one that you encounter in binary code.
To solve more complex problems, you need more of those transistors. But no matter how small you make them, there are only so many you can fit on a circuit board. So what does that mean? It means that sooner or later, traditional computers are going to be as smart as we can make them, depending on the Young Scientist Magazine. That’s where quantum machines can change things.
The quest to build quantum computers has become something of a world racewith some of the biggest companies and, indeed, governments on the planet racing to push the technology further, sparking a surge in interest in quantum computing stocks on the money markets.
An example is the device created by D-Wave. He has built the Advantage system, which he says is the first and only quantum computer designed for commercial use, according to a Press release Of the company.
D-wave said that it has been designed with a new processor architecture with more than 5000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivitywhich he said enables companies to solve their biggest and most complex business problems.
The firm claims that the machine is the first and only quantum computer that enables customers to develop and run real-world production quantum applications at cloud scale. The firm said that Advantage is 30 times faster and delivers the same or better solutions 94% of the time compared to its previous generation system.
But despite the enormous theoretical computational power of quantum computers, there’s still no need to send your old laptop to the wheelie bin. Conventional computers will continue to have a role to play in any new era and are much better suited to everyday tasks such as spreadsheets, email and word processing, according to Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI).
Where quantum computing could really make a game change, however, is in predictive analytics. Because a quantum computer can make analyzes and predictions at breakneck speeds, it would be able to predict weather patterns and do traffic modeling, things where there are millions, if not billions, of constantly changing variables.
Inside the D wave
Why do we need quantum computing?
Standard computers can do what they are told well enough if a human provides them with the correct computer program. But when it comes to predicting things, they’re not that smart. This is the reason why the Weather forecast it is not always accurate. There are too many variables, too many things changing too fast for any conventional computer to keep up.
Due to its limitations, there are some calculations that an ordinary computer may never be able to solve, or may take literally a billion years. It’s not much use if you need a quick prediction or analysis.
But a quantum computer is so fast, almost infinitely, that it could rapidly respond to changing information and examine an unlimited number of outcomes and permutations simultaneously, according to research from Computing Rigetti.
Quantum computers are also relatively small because they don’t rely on transistors like traditional machines. They also consume comparatively less powerwhich means that, in theory, they could be better for the environment.
Additional Resources
You can read about how to get started in quantum computing in this article by Nature. To learn more about the future of quantum computing, you can see this ted talk by doctoral student Jason Ball.
