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waxzy · 02-10-2007, 07:17 PM

'World first' quantum computer set to debut next week
The Reg | Friday 9th February 2007

A Canadian start-up says it will demonstrate a working commercial quantum computer in Mountain View next week, years ahead of many experts' predictions.

Venture capital-funded to the tune of $20m, Vancouver-based D-Wave says it has built a quantum computer with 16 qubits - the quantum world's version of a digital bit, but which simultaneously encodes 1 and 0, so can carry more information and solve problems more quickly.

D-Wave's claims have met with some practical and mathematical skepticism from the quantum-computing community, wary of over-hyping the technology. There's a taster of that doubt here at the Quantum Pontiff blog.

With just the 16 qubits, the device, known as Orion, will not have the brawn to perform factoring of the extremely large numbers which underly cryptography. The number-crunching feat has IT security firms and spooks afraid their current encryption technologies will be rendered obselete when a quantum computer with hundreds of qubits arrives.

According to D-Wave CTO Dr Geordie Rose's blog, the firm's roadmap calls for the construction of a 1,000 qubit machine in 2008.

D-Wave will demonstrate two applications for its quantum computer remotely on a machine at its headquarters in British Columbia. The first is a pattern-matching problem derived from molecular databases, while the second will tackle assigning seats to people under constraints, wedding reception style. Its speed at 16 qubits should be roughly similar to standard computers.

All will be revealed at the Computer History Museum on Tuesday. The event will be filmed and posted to D-Wave's website. For now, there are pictures of the circuitry here and here.

subgenius · 02-10-2007, 08:07 PM

wow thanks a bunch for this . pretty strange stuff

***Easy Skanking*** · 02-10-2007, 10:17 PM

I've been waiting for the first quantum computer.....Screw you Microsoft!!! LOL

fjaneson · 03-01-2007, 05:50 PM

Microsoft is no doubt working hard to find a way to make an OS that will cripple even a quantum proc.
I mean hell, Vista needs 4 gigs to be happy. Xp sucks without 2.

Everytime CPUs get faster, the OS bloats in direct proportion to any speed gains.

I miss DOS. Im sick of GUI's.

subgenius · 03-03-2007, 11:03 AM

soooo what were the results? i'm guessing that due to it's nature they were both positive and negative simultaneously and occuring at the same time in opposite parts of the world:) but seriously any idea what happened?

fjaneson · 03-10-2007, 10:22 AM

http://www.dwavesys.com/index.php?mact=New...nt01returnid=21

Sorry that link is so huge.

Here is a blog or two with the most recent info on the subject that I can find.

http://dwave.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/demo-recap/
http://dwave.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/demo-slides/

This story looks like it's being quashed. I dunno. Type "D-WAVE" and "demo"
and "results" into scroogle and see for yourselves. there are allegedly 2300 blogs about the demo. I can't find them.

Interesting arguments about the actual technology between inventor and others in geekdom...
http://dwave.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/quan...o-announcement/

Not a lot of talk about it in the last few weeks. You would think it would be all over the news.
Maybe i'm missing something. Maybe it worked.

subgenius · 03-12-2007, 09:55 AM

Ya for such a huge thing it sure has been low key... i assume they will soon be bought out by "bigger interests" I wonder what sort of tech is actually floating around in the secret circles....435 mhz.... anyhow this may be old stuff to them. Cool nonetheless