Humanity is now in the process of taking a quantum leap into the future when it comes to computers.
The next generation of computers – the so-called quantum computers – will, according to the experts to be as intelligent as humans.
single quantum computer is predicted in the future could be as powerful as the combined capacity of all the computers that currently exists, writes the Guardian. But as of now, the Canadian company D-Wave has managed to develop quantum computer, D-Wave 2X is up tilll 100 million times faster than today’s traditional computers.
How does it work?
Today’s computers are based on the 1′s and 0′s that switch on and off at a furious speed, but power still limited by how many transistors each microprocessor has. The first Intel processor had 2300 transistors in 1971, while today’s processors is just over 5 billion transistors.
It may sound a lot, but still nothing compared to quantum computers. The incredible rates can be achieved by quantum computers moving in a subatomic reality where the particles may also act as waves. This is called transistors counterpart “qubits” and their dual function makes it possible to perform multiple equations simultaneously on one and the same “qubit”. This means that two qubits can perform four equations simultaneously, and so on.
D-Wave 2X in the lead
D-Wave is considered to be in front in terms of quantum computers and has attracted heavy investor CIA hitech business In-Q-Tel and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Both Google, Lockheed Martin and NASA has paid $ 15 million each for the new computer.
“The D-Wave 2X manages in seconds take ordinary computers up to 10,000 years to do,” says Hartmut Neven, Director of Engineering at Google.
D-Wave was met for many years with some skepticism, but when Google tested predecessor D-Wave 2 January 2014 resolved the computer some complex tasks throughout 35 000 times faster than a regular computer. D-Wave 2, however, had “only” 509 “qubits”. Sequel D-Wave 2X consists of 1009 “qubits”.
D-Wave 2X is over three meters high and looks much like a freezer. In fact, it is also a kind of freezer that cools a Niobium-chip (chemical element with atomic number 41) to -273 degrees Celsius, or as close to absolute zero as you can get.
Photo: D-Wave
the super cold environment is necessary for the particles in the D-Wave’s computer to begin “interact” with each other. Minimum little flow of heat would reduce the quantum computer’s capacity, writes The Guardian.
D-Wave CEO Vern Brownell, former chief technology officer at investment bank Goldman Sachs. He was initially skeptical when he heard the co-founder Geordie Rose’s vision for the D-Wave. Rose wanted to create quantum computers for commercial use and had developed algorithms that gave “qubits” instructions to move as quickly and with as little energy as possible to be able to perform calculations at breakneck speed.
Goldman Sachs height successor jumped on the bandwagon – and the rest is as they say history.
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