Instead of being set to 1 or 0, as typical electrical bits
are, quantum bits (also known as "qubits") can concurrently contain
values of 1, 0, or both in quantum computing, which is closely related to
quantum physics. As additional qubits are added, the processing capability
becomes exponentially more powerful. Qubits are microscopic particles trapped
in temperatures slightly above absolute zero. With the help of quantum
computing, big data issues like weather forecasts or chemical analysis might be
resolved considerably more quickly.
To the best of our knowledge, we're not quite there yet, but
Google's announcement is another step toward making quantum computing a
reality, which can have a significant influence on technological and scientific
research. It also serves as justification for the work D-Wave has been
conducting with the computers it has sold to organisations like Lockheed Martin
and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, as Jordan Novet of VentureBeat notes.
It can be challenging to comprehend the new developments
without a background in physics and a command of technical jargon, but in
essence, researchers ran simulations of tests on conventional computer chips
and compared their capabilities to the D-Wave 2X when performing the same
calculations; this is where the 100 million speed increase was noted.
Although it is a staggering number, the age of quantum computing
is yet some time off. As Google's Hartmut Neven notes on the company's blog,
"While these results are exciting and highly encouraging, there is more
work ahead to transform quantum enhanced optimisation into a viable
solution." The team's research has also been the subject of a study.
Theoretical quantum computing is fine, but we haven't seen
any real-world evidence that these concepts can be put to use. Not everyone is
sure that the D-Wave 2X is a real quantum computer, as Gizmodo points out;
there is also some debate on the effectiveness of the algorithms employed in
Google's simulation of the conventional computer chip, which may have been
further optimised.
While experts dispute the relative benefits of this specific
supercomputer, Google is joined by companies like IBM and Microsoft in the
quest to decipher the secrets of quantum computing. Microsoft predicts that a
functioning quantum computer will be available within the next ten years,
however D-Wave continues to insist that the required technology is now
available.
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