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You can access a quantum computer - to be precise, a quantum _annealer_ right now, for free, via D-Wave Leap. It may not be gate model, but it does compute usin

You can access a quantum computer - to be precise, a quantum _annealer_ right now, for free, via D-Wave Leap. It may not be gate model, but it does compute using quantum effects, and it is useful for optimization problems, materials research, and other applications. No squinting required.

xondono 5y ago
Except there’s a lot of people (myself included) who don’t consider a quantum annealer to be a quantum computer. There has been also very little if any actual research in other fields powered with quantum computing. We can keep moving the goal posts and claim that we have made it, but the fact is that QC keeps overpromising and under delivering.
- mikewave 5y ago
  > Except there’s a lot of people (myself included) who don’t consider a quantum annealer to be a quantum computer. Well, great; that's an opinion. The thing is, if a device uses the quantum-mechanical properties of the universe to do calculation, then it is a quantum computer; asserting that it isn't one is a matter of semantics and categorization, since what you're really doing is redefining the term "quantum computer" to inherently include "gate model" as part of it, which is not a foregone conclusion yet. I believe, from what I've read, that at this point current and projected gate-model quantum computers will not be competitive on optimization problems where quantum annealing will be, so there is definitely utility in continuing to pursue this research and development exercise. > There has been also very little if any actual research in other fields powered with quantum computing. Here's our latest: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/07/14/science.abe2824?rss=1 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/07/14/scie... As a physics playground, annealers are very compelling, and materials research will definitely benefit from these devices.
  - xondono 5y ago
    > The thing is, if a device uses the quantum-mechanical properties of the universe to do calculation, then it is a quantum computer; Except this definition includes classical computers as well. At the scales of current transistors, quantum effects are required to explain their inner workings, and they are used to perform computations.
    - dekhn 5y ago
      this is misleading. we use quantum to explain transistors, but classical computers don't exploit any quantum phenomenon such as coherence, tunnelling, or entanglement.
Laakeri 5y ago
Is there some fair comparison of D-Wave annealer vs classical methods on optimization problems? I remember seeing papers where it was compared to some naive methods or the runtime of D-Wave approximation algorithm was compared to the runtime of classical exact algorithm -- obviously apples vs oranges.

xondono 5y ago

Except there’s a lot of people (myself included) who don’t consider a quantum annealer to be a quantum computer. There has been also very little if any actual research in other fields powered with quantum computing. We can keep moving the goal posts and claim that we have made it, but the fact is that QC keeps overpromising and under delivering.

mikewave 5y ago
> Except there’s a lot of people (myself included) who don’t consider a quantum annealer to be a quantum computer. Well, great; that's an opinion. The thing is, if a device uses the quantum-mechanical properties of the universe to do calculation, then it is a quantum computer; asserting that it isn't one is a matter of semantics and categorization, since what you're really doing is redefining the term "quantum computer" to inherently include "gate model" as part of it, which is not a foregone conclusion yet. I believe, from what I've read, that at this point current and projected gate-model quantum computers will not be competitive on optimization problems where quantum annealing will be, so there is definitely utility in continuing to pursue this research and development exercise. > There has been also very little if any actual research in other fields powered with quantum computing. Here's our latest: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/07/14/science.abe2824?rss=1 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/07/14/scie... As a physics playground, annealers are very compelling, and materials research will definitely benefit from these devices.
- xondono 5y ago
  > The thing is, if a device uses the quantum-mechanical properties of the universe to do calculation, then it is a quantum computer; Except this definition includes classical computers as well. At the scales of current transistors, quantum effects are required to explain their inner workings, and they are used to perform computations.
  - dekhn 5y ago
    this is misleading. we use quantum to explain transistors, but classical computers don't exploit any quantum phenomenon such as coherence, tunnelling, or entanglement.

Laakeri 5y ago

Is there some fair comparison of D-Wave annealer vs classical methods on optimization problems? I remember seeing papers where it was compared to some naive methods or the runtime of D-Wave approximation algorithm was compared to the runtime of classical exact algorithm -- obviously apples vs oranges.