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It's not fake, but it's not the quantum computer you would expect. http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/loser-dwave-does-not-quantum-compute/2 http://sp

by bobds 15y ago

It's not fake, but it's not the quantum computer you would expect. http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/loser-dwave-does-not-quantum-compute/2 http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/loser-dwave-does... "D-Wave's system uses a chip with little loops of niobium metal containing Josephson junctions—two superconductors separated by an insulator. When the chip is cooled to very low temperatures, tiny electrical currents flowing around the loops exhibit quantum properties, and you can use the direction to represent the states of a qubit: Counterclockwise represents 0, clockwise represents 1, and current flowing both ways represents a superposition of 0 and 1. D-Wave's superconducting qubits are not new, and other groups use similar devices. But whereas most groups are trying to build the quantum logic gates from which all computing operations can be derived—an approach known as the gate model—D-Wave has adopted a different approach, called adiabatic quantum computation. Here's the gist: You initialize a collection of qubits to their lowest energy state. You then ever so gently (or adiabatically) turn on interactions between the qubits, thus encoding a quantum algorithm. In the end, the qubits drift to a new lowest-energy state. You then read out the qubits to get the results."

Symmetry 15y ago
Oh man, I was a solder monkey for the Orlando group at MIT in my sophomore year, and we also used niobium loops for QBits. That box has got to be pretty big, though. Niobium doesn't superconduct until you bring it down to less that 10K, and to get a stable qbit we had to bring things down into the 100mK range - requiring a helium dilution refrigerator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator
hugh3 15y ago
Yes, I wish they'd stop calling it a "quantum computer". It's not a quantum computer. It's a thingy. That said, I'm quite impressed that D-Wave is finally bringing out a thingy that actually does something. Reading the Scott Aaronson post elsewhere in this thread it appears that they've finally got around to demonstrating that their thingy really does do stuff that involves quantum mechanics. They're still way behind their implausible schedule, and their thingy still can't do anything that a classical computer can't do a helluva lot faster and cheaper, but I do congratulate them on having a proper working thingy. But they need to stop calling this thingy a quantum computer.

by bobds 15y ago

Symmetry 15y ago

Oh man, I was a solder monkey for the Orlando group at MIT in my sophomore year, and we also used niobium loops for QBits. That box has got to be pretty big, though. Niobium doesn't superconduct until you bring it down to less that 10K, and to get a stable qbit we had to bring things down into the 100mK range - requiring a helium dilution refrigerator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator

hugh3 15y ago

Yes, I wish they'd stop calling it a "quantum computer". It's not a quantum computer. It's a thingy. That said, I'm quite impressed that D-Wave is finally bringing out a thingy that actually does something. Reading the Scott Aaronson post elsewhere in this thread it appears that they've finally got around to demonstrating that their thingy really does do stuff that involves quantum mechanics. They're still way behind their implausible schedule, and their thingy still can't do anything that a classical computer can't do a helluva lot faster and cheaper, but I do congratulate them on having a proper working thingy. But they need to stop calling this thingy a quantum computer.