The footsteps of a quantum computer

The footsteps of a quantum computer

The first computer came to our house in 2000. His hard disk was 20 GB, RAM 32 MB, Pentium 3 model. That computer was then the newest on the market. It took 3 to 4 minutes to copy an audio song to that computer. .Then we would wipe the wallpaper at regular intervals to make room. The desktop I’m using at home now has a hard disk of 8 terabytes, with a 250 GB SSDO, 16 GB of RAM and a processor Core-i-Five Eighth Generation.

.In these 17 years in between, a revolutionary change has taken place in the computer world. Now a lot of research is being done on computers, a lot of demand for hardware and software is being created. .They are not going to be supplied, competitors are increasing in the market, research is being done, they are not going to do a lot of work with the computer of previous power. So we have to make more power chips. All in all, the situation is quite Elahi. .In this change we have the advantage of technological competition. Computers are now more readily available to us, much more powerful than ever before.

.Google, IBM, and a few other Silicon Valley startups have been competing for days. This is the competition to build the next generation of supercomputers. Our current generation of computers can do a lot now. .Compared to 15 years ago, the working capacity of computer has increased manifold. Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person.

Quantum computer is coming to the market soon. .It is difficult to say exactly when it will be within the reach of the average buyer. But without a doubt, the power of that computer will be many times more than any current computer. To that end, a number of organizations are working day and night like crazy. .Trying to build the most powerful computer in the world.

Quantum particles are basically ultra-atomic particles. They can be in multiple states at the same time. The process is different than other computers. .This will be the biggest advantage of this computer. The current capacity of a typical computer is calculated based on how many bits it can operate per second. In ordinary computers, the number of bits is two — either 0 or 1. .It can be thought of as the equivalent of voltage up and down. In a quantum computer, a bit is called a quantum bit, or Qbit for short. Quantum particles can be in multiple states at the same time. .That is, if you want the value of qubit, you can have both 0 and 1 at the same time. But not only that! Instead, the value of qubit can be much higher due to the superposition of these two conditions. That means it is possible to contain much more information.

How can the idea of ​​qubit be? .Imagine an imaginary sphere, classical computers can only accept two values ​​of two poles of this sphere. Quantum computers can accept any value on this sphere surface. .As a result, its ability to work with data is many times greater than that of a classical computer. But energy consumption is much lower. A photon, nucleus or electron, they can all act as cubits. .A team of researchers is now using electrons in the outermost orbital of the phosphorus element as cubits.

For so long, Google seemed to be at the forefront of the race to create quantum computers. An article was published in Nature in March 2016. .In that article, Google announced the possibility of launching a quantum computer commercially in the market within five years. Towards the end of 2016, Google announced that it had built a 49 qubit quantum computer. .As a result, they claim to have achieved quantum supremacy. It takes a lot of time and a long process to do that on a normal computer. Google has used Quantum Supremacy as a synonym for achieving their goals.

.In November 2016, IBM announced that they had built a 50 qubit quantum computer. But researchers are reluctant to call it a real quantum computer. Because this computer from IBM has only 90 microseconds to hold the quantum microstate. .IBM is one step ahead of Google. In this computer, they also gave researchers the opportunity to perform various experiments. Wants to know what the taste of work on this quantum computer is like. .For those who are curious, they have access to a portion of their Quantum computer online. Since 2017, researchers can do their various work on a 5 qubit computer in the cloud if they want. .By the end of 2016, IBM had replaced the 5 qubit quantum computer with a 20 qubit computer. That is, power increases many times over. Anyone can go online and use it.

.However, the name of IBM, Google is being heard again and again in the market of Quantum computer. Yet in no way can this competition be called a two-horse race. California startup company Rigetti has entered the competition. Their work style is a little different. .They don’t want to worry about how many qubits are being used. He is working on how to make what he has more stable. .If they could finally come up with a permanent method, we would get a computer to use in everyday life, even if the number of cubits is small. .A company called D-Wave in Vancouver, Canada claims that they have already built a quantum computer of 2000 cubits. Many researchers are reluctant to call it a real quantum computer. Intel is also working on a quantum computer. .They made an announcement in February 2016. It is said that they have developed a method of making quantum chips with silicon. This will make the process of making chips in the conventional way much easier.

Why is there so much fuss about quantum computers? .What can it do? The working process of a quantum computer is completely different from the conventional method. Its efficiency in solving huge mathematical problems is much higher. The time to extract the huge prime number will now be many times less than before. .The fundamental number is a hugely important part of cryptography or computer security. The larger the prime number, the stronger the encryption. Security will also increase manifold. .Quantum computers can easily break the current security system of computers. A huge chunk of current security, both online and offline, will be crumbling in front of it. .Interestingly, some researchers are already trying to take the new technology one step further. Its purpose is to prevent quantum hacking. .The hope is that Quantum Computer encryption will also be something that can defeat all conventional and non-conventional hacking.

At present supercomputers are quite good at simulating complex types of chemical reactions. .In 2016, Google engineers were able to simulate a hydrogen molecule on a quantum computer for the first time. Since then, IBM has been trying to model more complex chemical reactions. .Researchers hope that using quantum simulations, they will be able to create new molecules that will revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry or medicine. The cure for incurable diseases will then come in handy.

.We do not yet know exactly what can be done by utilizing the enormous potential of quantum computers — it is a wonderful thing. And this not-knowing is actually a matter of feeling much better!

Author: Consultant, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education

.Sources: Technology Review, Digital Trends and New Scientist Next Web * The article was first published in the July 2017 issue of Bijnanchinta .