“Quantum computing has been threatening to kill off traditional digital computing for a long time now, with various scientific journals hailing its approach. Well, perhaps a few years earlier than we expected, the world has seen the first demonstration of a commercial grade quantum computer in action.
A quick primer: quantum computers don’t rely on bits to structure data. Instead, they work by assuming that the quantum properties of particles can be used to represent data structures. Rather than bits, these quantum data structures are called qubits. Since quantum computers deal with such tiny, tiny measurements and nuances - the behaviour of matter and energy at the subatomic scale - the potential for computing power is absolutely massive.
At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what Wikipedia says.
DWave Systems is a Canadian company, and they’ve built working hardware that computes at a quantum level. They’re running 16-bit qubit computations at the moment, but hope to expand that to 32-qubit by the end of the year.
To work, the hardware has to be chilled down to -273 degrees centigrade. That’s colder than outer space, and would make for a pretty decent Core 2 Duo overclock, we suspect.
“D-Wave’s breakthrough in quantum technology represents a substantial step forward in solving commercial and scientific problems which, until now, were considered intractable. Digital technology stands to reap the benefits of enhanced performance and broader application,” said Herb Martin, chief executive officer, according to DailyTech.
Because of the massive scale that quantum physics operates on, quantum computers are thought to be perfect for solving problems that are simply to great for traditional computers to operate on, such as life sciences and theoretical physics. In theory, a single quantum computer should be multiple times more powerful than the fastest supercomputer cluster in existence today.
It’s unlikely that we’re going to see quantum computers on the desktop any time soon, but it seems like Ray Kurtzweil’s theory of technological singularity, where machines are more intelligent than people, could be upon us.”
Well that sounds pretty freakin’ amazing. Just imagine what a completely different futuristic world we’ll all be living in in the near future. Just image the power of a couple of render-farms all in your budget priced desktop PC. Just image how GPU’s could benefit from this as well. Think Crysis looks amazing? In about 20 years we’ll all be laughing our asses off in disbelieve that we ever thought something as hideous as Crysis was considered “amazing”.
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7 Comments
nice thing! i think quantum physics is tremndouse! i have always been in love with physics! but dude, there is a little mistake, u can’t ever reach -273! that is abs zero! and according to 2nd law thermodynamics u can’t change all the heat into work! and that just means u can’t reach -273! and by the way! only three things are abs real:
1-death
2-taxes
3-2nd law of thermodynamics!
for me alah is the absolute truth! but not all believe in!
Attention.. there’s nothing that can be called absolute in our fucked up world.. nothing, nada! At one point of history the coasts of spain were the “absolute” western edge of the world and last time I checked the atlas it turned out that earth is spherical !! oO
Btw, God is not from this world so..
it means a frame! so it is absoulte! once they find another frame that would be different!
*Sigh* That’s dumb. Frames are introduced to make it easier for the dumber peeps to understand shit. And I think there’s nothing absolute when referred to while implementing a frame.. I think they’re called limits or something (don’t know the word). Frames hypothesise that something is “absolute” to start building on that point and compare stuff to it.
and wtf did i said! am not to0 interested in discussing it! 2 monthes ago a stupid company came up and said that they could create a prepetual machine (am not sure of the spelling) but it means a machine that can creat work! now just tell me! is not that absolute dumb! it is just like that! now u can’t tell me that that can be achieved! it is the same case for abs zero. and just believe me! when it come to what is absoluty, then not u nor me are asked about our opinons! u should look very good into the 2nd law of thermodynamics! becus it is just another definition for death! and that what makes it abs! now u just can’t tell me death is not abs!
u guys r fighting on the wording????? -273 is CALLED absolute zero,becaue in the kelvin(absolute) degrees -273 is zero,the word absolute is from absolute value e.g absoulte -5 is 5, the idea no negative in kelvin,and i am with yuri, it is impossible to reach -273 AT THIS TIME. in future maybe, now it doesn’t seem possible, but i need more info about this issue
ok! i have to explain it! imagin u want to cool a body with 200 k to 150 k! u’ll need another meduim with 100 k (not accurate just for an example) at the end ur body will be 150 and the other will be 122 k ( again just for an example)! now if u want to make a body go to zero abs! u shall need a body with a temp less than that! amd that is what make it totally impossible! it is just that simple! u can’t find a body with - 2 k!!! that is all! besides we are not fighting! it is just a discussion!