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This post makes the assumption that one has been following this drama for a long time in detail. I know there was a bit of controversy around D-Wave a long whil

This post makes the assumption that one has been following this drama for a long time in detail. I know there was a bit of controversy around D-Wave a long while back, but that's faded from memory now. The Google post brought them back into memory, but I found it hard to make it past the first few back-and-forths in Scott's post. Can someone clarify what the situation is here without the "socratic-dramatic"? :)

Devilboy 17y ago
D-Wave keeps making the news with their 'adiabatic quantum computers' solving puzzles and doing pattern-matching. They claimed last year that they built a 128-qubit quantum chip while other research efforts only managed couple of qubits. The problem with all this is that they've still not managed to prove that their hardware is actually a quantum computer (in the sense that there's usefully entangled qubits) In a previous press interview they were ripped to shreds - rightfully so - for being so vague about how they knew that the devices they build are quantum computers. At one point someone asked them about a really simple test: To maintain a quantum superposition the hardware must be kept close to 0 Kelvin. Therefore they should be able to slowly increase the temp in their rig and at some point it should change behavior - it should revert to the classical physical behavior and the quantum effects should stop. D-Wave admitted that they've not done this simple yet extremely obvious test. And today, a year later, we're still no further. The only logical conclusion is that they've not succeeded in making a 'real' quantum processor.