Posted on 12/01/2021 9:53:19 AM PST by ShadowAce
Quantum computers could one day blow boring old classical computers out of the water, but so far their complexity limits their usefulness. Engineers at Stanford have now demonstrated a new relatively simple design for a quantum computer where a single atom is entangled with a series of photons to process and store information.
Quantum computers tap into the weird world of quantum physics to perform calculations far faster than traditional computers can handle. Where existing machines store and process information in bits, as either ones and zeroes, quantum computers use qubits, which can exist as one, zero, or a superposition of both one and zero at the same time. That means their power scales exponentially with each added qubit, allowing them to tackle problems beyond the reach of classical computers.
Of course, quantum computers bring their own challenges. For one, the quantum effects they run on are sensitive to disturbances like vibration or heat, so quantum computers need to be kept at temperatures approaching absolute zero. As such, their complexity scales with the computing power of the machine, so they become physically larger and more cumbersome as more processing power is added.
But the Stanford team says their new design is deceptively simple. It’s a photonic circuit made using a few components that are already available – a fiber optic cable, a beam splitter, two optical switches and an optical cavity – and it can reduce the number of physical logic gates needed.
“Normally, if you wanted to build this type of quantum computer, you’d have to take potentially thousands of quantum emitters, make them all perfectly indistinguishable, and then integrate them into a giant photonic circuit,” says Ben Bartlett, lead author of the study. “Whereas with this design, we only need a handful of relatively simple components,
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
“Could”
“One day”
The grift continues…
Good grief!
“Read the article”...
You forgot the “/s”. 😳😀
At the very end of the article:
“Better still, photonic quantum computer systems can operate at room temperature, removing the bulk added by the extreme cooling systems.”.
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