5 ms·

Honeywell says it will soon launch the world’s most powerful quantum computer

66 points by oedmarap 7y ago

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
fortran77 7y ago
Did you hear that Honeywell is going to merge with Fairchild? The new company is going to be called Fairwell Honeychild.
- adaisadais 7y ago
  Fairwell Honeychild is my favorite lo-fi indie band.
- BigBubbleButt 7y ago
  http://www.cs.utah.edu/~bnnewton/humor/mergers.htm http://www.cs.utah.edu/~bnnewton/humor/mergers.htm
m3kw9 7y ago
Most powerful probably isn’t saying much.
- melling 7y ago
  Perhaps, but there’s nothing like a technology arms race to increase innovation.
- Polylactic_acid 7y ago
  Probably means consumes the most power.
madengr 7y ago
Here is the actual paper: https://www.honeywell.com/content/dam/honeywell/files/Beta_10_Quantum_3_3_2020.pdf https://www.honeywell.com/content/dam/honeywell/files/Beta_1... This is all very interesting. I work for another division of Honeywell (not this quantum group) and about 4 years ago designed a “cryogenic device” for a “Honeywell customer”; I won’t go into specifics but I figured it had something to do with QC, but they took the design and never responded back.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
klyrs 7y ago
The title is hype. "World's most powerful" is beyond questionable. They're using IBM's measure of "quantum volume" which is a nice way to boil down a hugely complicated system to a single number where management can agree "the numbers got bigger!" But I have yet to see anything directly connecting it to any sensible notion of computational power. How about "Honeywell announces impending launch of their quantum computing effort"
- MperorM 7y ago
  As someone who understands little about quantum computing, why is quantum volume not a good measure? I'd be thankful to better understand better what parts of the complicated system is lost in the measure.
  - klyrs 7y ago
    I've asked the contrary -- "why is quantum volume a good measure?" And haven't been satisfied. But don't take my word for it; I'm not a QC expert, (some of my friends are)... https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2019/11/23/quantum-volume-a-yardstick-to-measure-the-power-of-quantum-computers/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2019/11/23/quantum... > Quantum Volume would also benefit the CEO or investor who lacks the in-depth technical knowledge necessary to make confident investment decisions in the technology. Additionally, reported variations in Quantum Volume from company to company would likely stimulate more articles by the media, which would serve to educate the general public further. Look at your computer. It's got a processor with a certain number of cores, a maximum clock frequency, a hierarchical cache system with varying sizes; it's got a certain amount of RAM with its own operating frequency; a graphics card with some number of cores, its own RAM and clock frequency. Imagine that I hand you a single number that's supposed to encapsulate all that information -- let's say something of the form frequency * cores * ram. And... maybe that kinda makes sense? But it doesn't actually correspond to any kind of real-world performance. The issue isn't so much that there's parts lost in the measure -- rather, they've thrown in the kitchen sink and it's hard to say what it all really means. Except convincing management, "big numbers go zoom!"
    - 7y ago
virtuatony 7y ago
Good for moneywell. I’m sure it will be as good as everything else they make.
craftinator 7y ago
But... Can it factor the number 15? My watch can. My doorbell can. My car can. Can their quantum computer do that?
- mdorazio 7y ago
  That's like asking if a stapler can dispense tape. QC is not and never was intended to be for general purpose computing. It's a tool for specific use cases where classical computing falls apart very quickly, like the traveling salesman problem.
  - craftinator 7y ago
    Yes, I understand that I will not be running Windows desktop, or doing anything remotely familiar on a QC. But factoring very large numbers very fast has been, for quite a while now, the sales pitch of the QC evangelists. One of the strongest use cases put forward, one that has gotten many a grad students a thesis, and many schools and labs a fat grant. But yet, my $1.50 microcontroller can do it in a few milliseconds, while a $10M, liquid nitrogen cooled monster is incapable of doing so. I don't see progress occurring.
  - fsh 7y ago
    Factoring large numbers is by far the most famous "specific use case" for quantum computers. Even in theory, they can't achieve exponential speed up (only quadratic) for travelling salesman.
  - tialaramex 7y ago
    Problems like TSP are terrible examples because we have an excellent and affordable approximation for lots of them. A working general quantum computer (if anybody builds one) will be an expensive way to slightly improve those results. It's the gold-plated HDMI cable of quantum computer applications. Factoring isn't like dispensing tape, it has one of the few applications (breaking conventional asymmetric cryptography) for which an expensive but working general quantum computer gives you a clear benefit (with Shor's algorithm) over just buying a lot of ordinary computers. And all these press release "breakthrough" machines can't do it because it's hard. They're at best a stalling tactic, to buy more time/money to solve the hard problems and at worst they're essentially a con.
mixmastamyk 7y ago
Was just reading about Multics, they had a hand in it. Did anyone ever port it to the PC or Virtual box?
- unused0 7y ago
  Porting is unfeasible; Multics relies on hardware features not available. An emulator for the original hardware can be found at: http://ringzero.wikidot.com/ http://ringzero.wikidot.com/ Information about Multics at: https://multicians.org/ https://multicians.org/
_trampeltier 7y ago
Is it the same Honeywell who did products like industrial limit switchs and so? When you go to there homepage now, there is something like "industrie", but you can't find a real product. Do they just things like consulting now? Strange website ..
- dr_zoidberg 7y ago
  From the article: > Honeywell has long built the kind of complex control systems that power many of the world’s largest industrial sites. So I guess it is?

66 points by oedmarap 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Did you hear that Honeywell is going to merge with Fairchild? The new company is going to be called Fairwell Honeychild.

adaisadais 7y ago
Fairwell Honeychild is my favorite lo-fi indie band.
BigBubbleButt 7y ago
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~bnnewton/humor/mergers.htm http://www.cs.utah.edu/~bnnewton/humor/mergers.htm

m3kw9 7y ago

Most powerful probably isn’t saying much.

melling 7y ago
Perhaps, but there’s nothing like a technology arms race to increase innovation.
Polylactic_acid 7y ago
Probably means consumes the most power.

madengr 7y ago

Here is the actual paper: https://www.honeywell.com/content/dam/honeywell/files/Beta_10_Quantum_3_3_2020.pdf https://www.honeywell.com/content/dam/honeywell/files/Beta_1... This is all very interesting. I work for another division of Honeywell (not this quantum group) and about 4 years ago designed a “cryogenic device” for a “Honeywell customer”; I won’t go into specifics but I figured it had something to do with QC, but they took the design and never responded back.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

klyrs 7y ago

The title is hype. "World's most powerful" is beyond questionable. They're using IBM's measure of "quantum volume" which is a nice way to boil down a hugely complicated system to a single number where management can agree "the numbers got bigger!" But I have yet to see anything directly connecting it to any sensible notion of computational power. How about "Honeywell announces impending launch of their quantum computing effort"

MperorM 7y ago
As someone who understands little about quantum computing, why is quantum volume not a good measure? I'd be thankful to better understand better what parts of the complicated system is lost in the measure.
- klyrs 7y ago
  I've asked the contrary -- "why is quantum volume a good measure?" And haven't been satisfied. But don't take my word for it; I'm not a QC expert, (some of my friends are)... https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2019/11/23/quantum-volume-a-yardstick-to-measure-the-power-of-quantum-computers/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2019/11/23/quantum... > Quantum Volume would also benefit the CEO or investor who lacks the in-depth technical knowledge necessary to make confident investment decisions in the technology. Additionally, reported variations in Quantum Volume from company to company would likely stimulate more articles by the media, which would serve to educate the general public further. Look at your computer. It's got a processor with a certain number of cores, a maximum clock frequency, a hierarchical cache system with varying sizes; it's got a certain amount of RAM with its own operating frequency; a graphics card with some number of cores, its own RAM and clock frequency. Imagine that I hand you a single number that's supposed to encapsulate all that information -- let's say something of the form frequency * cores * ram. And... maybe that kinda makes sense? But it doesn't actually correspond to any kind of real-world performance. The issue isn't so much that there's parts lost in the measure -- rather, they've thrown in the kitchen sink and it's hard to say what it all really means. Except convincing management, "big numbers go zoom!"
  - 7y ago

virtuatony 7y ago

Good for moneywell. I’m sure it will be as good as everything else they make.

craftinator 7y ago

But... Can it factor the number 15? My watch can. My doorbell can. My car can. Can their quantum computer do that?

mdorazio 7y ago
That's like asking if a stapler can dispense tape. QC is not and never was intended to be for general purpose computing. It's a tool for specific use cases where classical computing falls apart very quickly, like the traveling salesman problem.
- craftinator 7y ago
  Yes, I understand that I will not be running Windows desktop, or doing anything remotely familiar on a QC. But factoring very large numbers very fast has been, for quite a while now, the sales pitch of the QC evangelists. One of the strongest use cases put forward, one that has gotten many a grad students a thesis, and many schools and labs a fat grant. But yet, my $1.50 microcontroller can do it in a few milliseconds, while a $10M, liquid nitrogen cooled monster is incapable of doing so. I don't see progress occurring.
- fsh 7y ago
  Factoring large numbers is by far the most famous "specific use case" for quantum computers. Even in theory, they can't achieve exponential speed up (only quadratic) for travelling salesman.
- tialaramex 7y ago
  Problems like TSP are terrible examples because we have an excellent and affordable approximation for lots of them. A working general quantum computer (if anybody builds one) will be an expensive way to slightly improve those results. It's the gold-plated HDMI cable of quantum computer applications. Factoring isn't like dispensing tape, it has one of the few applications (breaking conventional asymmetric cryptography) for which an expensive but working general quantum computer gives you a clear benefit (with Shor's algorithm) over just buying a lot of ordinary computers. And all these press release "breakthrough" machines can't do it because it's hard. They're at best a stalling tactic, to buy more time/money to solve the hard problems and at worst they're essentially a con.

mixmastamyk 7y ago

Was just reading about Multics, they had a hand in it. Did anyone ever port it to the PC or Virtual box?

unused0 7y ago
Porting is unfeasible; Multics relies on hardware features not available. An emulator for the original hardware can be found at: http://ringzero.wikidot.com/ http://ringzero.wikidot.com/ Information about Multics at: https://multicians.org/ https://multicians.org/

_trampeltier 7y ago

Is it the same Honeywell who did products like industrial limit switchs and so? When you go to there homepage now, there is something like "industrie", but you can't find a real product. Do they just things like consulting now? Strange website ..

dr_zoidberg 7y ago
From the article: > Honeywell has long built the kind of complex control systems that power many of the world’s largest industrial sites. So I guess it is?