News First commercial quantum computer demoed

[WilHarris]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/02...mputer_demoed/

[oasked]

You do realise that absolute zero is at -273.15°C...

[specofdust]

Great news, the power of these things are just looking to blow regular computers out of the water, and unleash more power to us home users(in time) than we could ever want or need. However the tech is young and will need an absolute tonne of development before it's going to be doing much I imagine.

Not to mention the significant technical problems in a home user chilling their CPU down to 0.15 degrees centigrade above 0 Kelvin(0 kelvin = absolute zero, there ain't no colder then that, and time tends to stop there).

[Phil Rhodes]

Theoretical physics?

OK - what am I not seeing here - we have to make giant advances in theoretical physics so as to be able to make a quantum processor, which will allow us to make giant advances in theoretical physics.

Er, marvellous. I think.

Technological singularity, anyone?

Phil

[_DTM2000_]

Let's just hope it doesn't become self aware.

[g3n3tiX]

Originally Posted by Article

simply to great

too ?



Although this technology is considered at its beginning, it looks promising.

[Darkedge]

Well not quite as cut and dried as you think - Quantum computers will not replace traditional computers but will be useful in some areas - they work in a totally different manner and the problems of inference is massive that may mean more than 16bit may not be possible.
Even the company that built this one has said it may actually be a digital computer that behaves very oddly not a quantum one, so don;t start going all paranoid or techlusty over Ai's or anything just yet.

[BlueDemon]

As oasked pointed out, -273 degrees centigrade is nigh on absolute zero. I can't think of a way of reaching such low-low temperatures, as machinery simply falls apart when chilled to such extremes. Even then, it would most definitely not be viable on a commercial level.

[r4tch3t]

These would be quite useful (once they get some decent processing power) for use in places like CERN, JET, and such similar places, as they already have the ability to cool it down that far, and they are researching stuff that a quantum computer would be great for.
What happens if you stick your finger in it?

[Veles]

Space isn't cold...

Sounds err...confusing.

[boggsi]

Originally Posted by Veles

Space isn't cold...

Sounds err...confusing.

absence of thermal energy = cold, background microwaves in deep space ~ 3K. cold enough in my books!

[Veles]

Well seeing as there is mostly nothing in space aside from the odd planet or two. I'd say it's more no temperature, rather than "cold". Cold doesn't really exist either, it just means, a low temperature, a low thermal energy, if there is no thermal energy, there is no heat of any kind, so there can't be any "cold". Stick something like a nebula there, and then there is a mass, there is thermal energy, so it is "cold".

[Fod]

Originally Posted by Veles

Well seeing as there is mostly nothing in space aside from the odd planet or two. I'd say it's more no temperature, rather than "cold". Cold doesn't really exist either, it just means, a low temperature, a low thermal energy, if there is no thermal energy, there is no heat of any kind, so there can't be any "cold". Stick something like a nebula there, and then there is a mass, there is thermal energy, so it is "cold".

you're either being deeply philosophical or a complete ****. lack of heat == cold.

[randosome]

gotta love how bit tech articles digress so

Heat is just particles moving, the more the particles move (or vibrate) the hotter something is
Therefore, cold is in fact particles moving less, and at absolute 0, the particles stop moving altogether (even at very cold temperatures, they are moving slowly)
In space heat (or the energy) just dissipates, everything loses its energy in space so it seems "cold"

I do have to wonder how they managed to achieve such a low temperature though, i thought something that cold was still impossible for humans
Also, when your measuring atoms and such, wouldn't you want them to be moving ?
Also, technically wouldn't this mean the hotter a quantum chip is, the faster it could (theoretically) run

[jezmck]

-273 degrees centigrade

<pedant>You mean 'Celsius'</pedant>

[Veles]

Originally Posted by randosome

gotta love how bit tech articles digress so

Heat is just particles moving, the more the particles move (or vibrate) the hotter something is
Therefore, cold is in fact particles moving less, and at absolute 0, the particles stop moving altogether (even at very cold temperatures, they are moving slowly)
In space heat (or the energy) just dissipates, everything loses its energy in space so it seems "cold"

Exactly, in space, or at least in most of space where there are no particles, a complete vacuum, there can be no particles vibrating, no particles storing thermal energy. So it's not that theres a low temperature, there is NO temperature.

Cold is a completely subjective term, something CANNOT be just described as cold scientifically, you can say space is colder than my fridge, implying my fridge has a higher temperature than space, but just saying my fridge is cold doesn't make sense.

[DeX]

Veles, space isn't a complete vacuum. Interstellar space has about 1 hydrogen atom ber cm³. Even in the loneliest parts of the universe between the galaxies where everything would be pitchblack you still find a proton or electron per m³. In any case the reason that space has a temperature of around 3K is not because of these particles but because of background microwave radiation. This is the remenants of the big bang "cooling off" and no matter where you are in space you can't escape it.

[r4tch3t]

Originally Posted by randosome

Also, when your measuring atoms and such, wouldn't you want them to be moving ?
Also, technically wouldn't this mean the hotter a quantum chip is, the faster it could (theoretically) run

From what I understand (haven't read wikipedia yet, will get round to it sometime) Quantum computing measures extremely small changes in the atoms, so if it was at say room temperature, the atoms would be moving so much, that they couldn't properly measure it.

[Veles]

Originally Posted by DeX

Veles, space isn't a complete vacuum. Interstellar space has about 1 hydrogen atom ber cm³. Even in the loneliest parts of the universe between the galaxies where everything would be pitchblack you still find a proton or electron per m³. In any case the reason that space has a temperature of around 3K is not because of these particles but because of background microwave radiation. This is the remenants of the big bang "cooling off" and no matter where you are in space you can't escape it.

Even so, the energy of a wave isn't thermal energy? But then, wave particle duality, etc. so I guess it's thermal energy as well. However, the statement that space isn't cold is still true, but by a different argument

But anyway, if you want to go out on an EVA you need a cooling suit not a heating suit. But thats something different entirely.

[brumster]

Sorry to drag this back to the article but has the hardware been independently examined? Seems like hype to me.