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First 'Quantum Computer' No Faster Than Classic PC (updated)
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Doreen Kaundur
#1 - 2014-06-19 19:12:40 UTC  |  Edited by: Doreen Kaundur
Quote:
First 'Quantum Computer' No Faster Than Classic PC

The world's first commercial quantum computer, made by the Canadian company D-Wave Systems Inc., performed no better than a classical computer in a recent analysis.

Quantum computers are thought to be able to solve complex problems thousands of times faster than classical computers, and scientists have been working on developing them for more than a decade. These devices could be useful for modeling quantum mechanics — the realm of physics that describes how matter at the sub-microscopic scale can exist as both a particle and a wave — or for cracking encrypted online information.

A team of researchers compared the performance of a D-Wave Two device to that of a classical computer on a specific set of problems, and failed to find evidence that the quantum computer was faster. [10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life]

"We do not see any evidence of quantum speedup in the D-Wave device," said Matthias Troyer, a theoretical physicist at ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, and co-author of the study, detailed today (June 19) in the journal Science.

Quantum machines

Classical computers perform calculations using bits, whose value can only be 0 or 1. Quantum computers instead use quantum bits, or "qubits," that can exist as a 0 and 1 at the same time. This allows quantum devices to perform multiple calculations at once.

Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was one of the first to propose the idea of quantum computers in the 1980s, as a way to overcome the limitations of classical computers in simulating quantum systems in physics. Later, mathematician Peter Shor showed that a quantum computer could factor an integer into prime numbers, an ability that could be used to crack encryption algorithms on the Internet.

The company D-Wave, based in Burnaby, Canada, built what it called the first commercial quantum computer in 2011. In 2013, Google and NASA bought one of the company's second-generation devices to use for artificial intelligence research.

Yet, some scientists remain skeptical that the D-Wave devices operate faster than a traditional computer.

Troyer and his colleagues set out to test the 503-qubit D-Wave Two device. They posed a thousand random optimization problems to the machine, and measured how long it took to solve them, compared with a classical PC.

For the problems they tested, the researchers found no evidence of "quantum speedup," or faster performance, on the D-Wave Two.

Quantum pessimism

There could be several explanations for these results, the researchers said. Perhaps, the scientists simply didn't test the machine on the right set of problems.

Colin Williams, a quantum computer scientist and D-Wave's director of business development, told Science Magazine that the problems used in the study were "not at all the right choice for probing a quantum speedup."

Or, it could be that the D-Wave's qubits are not ideal — the device uses qubit technology that is a decade old, so the bits may only stay in position for about 10 nanoseconds (10 billionths of a second), even though it takes 20 microseconds (2,000 times as long) to solve a problem, Troyer said. Another possibility is that the D-Wave may not have been calibrated correctly, he said.

So far, no one has found cases where the D-Wave shows quantum speedup, Troyer said. "The more we look and we don't find it, the more pessimistic I become," he said.


Interesting results. I'm not educated enough in the area of quantum computers to give any opinion on the matter as to why these results are so.

EDIT: A better article.

I like this quote:

Quote:
When can I have my own personal quantum computer?
Whatever the future of quantum computers, don't expect to own one yourself. "This will be a special-purpose device that can solve a limited set of problems much better than a classical one, but it will never be a general purposes machine like your laptop or your iPhone," says Troyer. "It's not what we'll have at home in the future."


Now consider these past tech quotes:

Quote:
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977



You never know.

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Ila Dace
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2014-06-19 19:40:48 UTC
OK... Collapse the wave and perform all the calculation simultaneously... Awesome! Now read them serially... uhhh... great... now sort them... Doh!

If House played Eve: http://i.imgur.com/y7ShT.jpg

But in purple, I'm stunning!
Commissar Kate
Kesukka
#3 - 2014-06-19 20:11:10 UTC
I have no idea what any of that means other than it looks like we are stuck on silicon for the foreseeable future.

-k8

My Fanclub
Grimpak
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#4 - 2014-06-19 20:17:37 UTC
Commissar Kate wrote:
I have no idea what any of that means other than it looks like we are stuck on silicon for the foreseeable future.

Quantum computing is based on non-optimized 10-year old code.


or so it seems what I understood.

[img]http://eve-files.com/sig/grimpak[/img]

[quote]The more I know about humans, the more I love animals.[/quote] ain't that right
Bagrat Skalski
Koinuun Kotei
#5 - 2014-06-19 21:12:15 UTC
Ok people, we have quantum computer now. Does anybody in the room know how can we use it and for what? Ugh

Custom ship skins, character creator style "repaint". Bring it!
Doreen Kaundur
#6 - 2014-06-19 21:22:10 UTC
Bagrat Skalski wrote:
Ok people, we have quantum computer now. Does anybody in the room know how can we use it and for what? Ugh



Does seems like a solution looking for a problem. When lasers were first developed, it was the same...what do we do with it now?

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Kijo Rikki
Killboard Padding Services
#7 - 2014-06-19 21:31:37 UTC
I thought I read something a year or two ago about D-Wave's not really being quantum computers. My googlefu blows, but this is sort of what I remember, only it was alot more in depth and accusatory in its nature:

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/02/03/1449220/first-evidence-that-googles-quantum-computer-may-not-be-quantum-after-all

You make a valid point, good Sir or Madam. 
Oberine Noriepa
#8 - 2014-06-19 21:51:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Oberine Noriepa
Commissar Kate wrote:
I have no idea what any of that means other than it looks like we are stuck on silicon for the foreseeable future.

Nonsense. Biological computers are everywhere. You're using one right now.

∃
Commissar Kate
Kesukka
#9 - 2014-06-19 22:01:36 UTC
Oberine Noriepa wrote:
Commissar Kate wrote:
I have no idea what any of that means other than it looks like we are stuck on silicon for the foreseeable future.

Nonsense. Biological computers are everywhere. You're using one right now.


Then please tell me where I can buy a brain in a jar that can play EvE.

-k8

My Fanclub
Oberine Noriepa
#10 - 2014-06-19 22:08:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Oberine Noriepa
Commissar Kate wrote:
Oberine Noriepa wrote:
Commissar Kate wrote:
I have no idea what any of that means other than it looks like we are stuck on silicon for the foreseeable future.

Nonsense. Biological computers are everywhere. You're using one right now.


Then please tell me where I can buy a brain in a jar that can play EvE.

*points at you*

It's just that the "jar" in this case is... prettier than your standard jar, I suppose. P

∃
Bagrat Skalski
Koinuun Kotei
#11 - 2014-06-20 19:52:42 UTC  |  Edited by: Bagrat Skalski
Oberine Noriepa wrote:
Commissar Kate wrote:
Oberine Noriepa wrote:
Commissar Kate wrote:
I have no idea what any of that means other than it looks like we are stuck on silicon for the foreseeable future.

Nonsense. Biological computers are everywhere. You're using one right now.


Then please tell me where I can buy a brain in a jar that can play EvE.

*points at you*

It's just that the "jar" in this case is... prettier than your standard jar, I suppose. P


And you can't really buy it, you can only grow it in a form of your children. ANd then they just have their own mind about anything. Roll

Custom ship skins, character creator style "repaint". Bring it!
Reaver Glitterstim
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#12 - 2014-06-20 20:13:34 UTC
That news article contains no useful information about quantum computers and demonstrates a lack of understanding of the subject on the part of the author. Also, qubits cannot be used to store and retrieve information in the way that standard bits can be.

While I accept that this article may be serious, I am forced to conclude that it is likely a joke.

FT Diomedes: "Reaver, sometimes I wonder what you are thinking when you sit down to post."

Frostys Virpio: "We have to give it to him that he does put more effort than the vast majority in his idea but damn does it sometime come out of nowhere."