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Innovative Ion Trap on a Semiconductor 76
Denix writes "MIT's TechnologyReview has an interesting article on a silicon-based "ion trap" in order to host a "qubit." The Ion Trap technology 'uses electric and magnetic fields to isolate a charged particle from its environment -- a prerequisite for exploiting the temperamental quantum properties of electrons."
Excellent (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Excellent (Score:1)
Re:Excellent (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Excellent (Score:1)
Re:Excellent (Score:1)
Obligatory Cosby Quote... (Score:1)
How will they be programmed? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:3, Funny)
... and how long it will be before someone ports Doom to it.
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:1)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:2)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:1)
The quantum computers require totally different approach to programming... So that's why you won't play QuantumQuake very soon.
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:1)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:5, Informative)
The field of quantum programming languages is developing rapidly and there is a surprisingly large literature. Research in this area includes the design of programming languages for quantum computing, the application of established semantic and logical techniques to the foundations of quantum mechanics, and the design of compilers for quantum programming languages. This article justfies the study of quantum programming languages, presents the basics of quantum computing, surveys the literature in quantum programming languages, and indicates directions for future research.
He has the bibliography, complete with paper links available here [gla.ac.uk].
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:2)
Or a Schroedinbug [wikipedia.org]!
Schroedinbug is a term used in software programming to describe a computer bug that is not discovered, but shows up after somebody reads the source or uses the application in an unusual way. The program then stops working for everyone until the bug is fixed. Although this sounds rather impossible, some programs have carried latent schroedinbugs.
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:1)
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:2)
Sorry if I missed a joke
Re:How will they be programmed? (Score:1)
Important point (Score:3, Informative)
Don't we have enough qubit styles already? (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyone remembers those computers that filled a whole room, and cost the price of a small country?
Re:Don't we have enough qubit styles already? (Score:1)
Re:Don't we have enough qubit styles already? (Score:1)
For those interested (Score:4, Informative)
Also, Wikipedia has quite a bit of useful information, especially regarding Paul traps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_trap [wikipedia.org]
Re:For those interested (Score:2)
Quantum Computing and Ghost Busting (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Quantum Computing and Ghost Busting (Score:2)
You want to store ghosts on computer chips? Hmm. Things could get really very interesting.
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris... :)
Re:Quantum Computing and Ghost Busting (Score:1)
So if you think about it: There is actually a Ghost-in-the-Machine!
Will he be trapped there forever ?
Well, this is a new machine.
My last one lasted about two years before it started dragging
What happens to the ghost if the memory is a flash drive but the system wont ever boot up again ? Will he be trapped for eternity in a toxic wate dump ? Does it matter
Is it useful for the masses (Score:3, Interesting)
The progress is certainly interesting, but I everything shows this won't be the future of the mass computing, where running multimedia and office application are more practical usage of technology, and not especially suited for quantum computers (cuz most of you know quantum computers aren't just super fast computers.. they're just
For personal computing we gotta be looking into nano-technology, which also would be compatible with today's PC architecture (i.e. nano RAM in a laptop or nano HDD with SCSI interface for example).
Re:Is it useful for the masses (Score:4, Interesting)
multimedia and office applications are old technology and I agree that they don't require new tech. Back when 8 bit CPU's gave way to high tech 16 bit stuff I read an article about how 8 bits were better because most data (characters) came in 7 bit chunks.
The world has moved on from those days and will continue to do so. How about a search engine which indexes literally every bit of data in the world and uses a massively parallel quantum search engine to continually run searches and give answers in milliseconds? How about simulating whole communities of scanned minds in a simple chunk of reliable hardware? I can see lots of applications but they won't be the killer apps for the future.
Its funny. 20 years ago I agreed with that guy who said 16 bits would never catch on...
Re:Is it useful for the masses (Score:5, Informative)
Quantum computers are not evolution from computer technology, they're an entirely new beast. It's not even like PowerPC vs Intel or anything. You can't just "port" programs to it that are made for regular PC-s.
They are also not better in data throughput or speed as a technology on their own. They use aspects of quantum mechanics (which scientists still can't explain why they happen in first place) to run very specialised set of tasks through it and obtain results that'd take years of loops on a normal PC to compute.
I still don't see it in my mobile phone or PC, was my point.
They're not really super fast. (Score:3, Insightful)
They have the potential to do stuff that we do slowly now much faster, but I don't t
Re:They're not really super fast. (Score:5, Interesting)
BTW this is why I always thought calling them "computers" is misleading. When you say computer you expect the full thing, being able to handle any PC tasks you throw at it.
I'd rather call it Quantum Processing Unit (QPU), and just like FPU before it it'll play together with the core CPU, not replace it, since you still need a "normal" CPU to display the interface, code editor, to compile code and to show the results of the quantum computations of the QPU.
You can't just grab a QPU and adapt it to do all tasks a moden CPU can. They're just
Re:They're not really super fast. (Score:1)
We're still fighting to get a QPU right enough so it can do math on just few qbits (i.e. few bits). Modern CPU simply does modern CPU job better than the first few generations of QPU will.
CPU's strengths are QPU weaknesses and vice versa.
Re:They're not really super fast. (Score:2)
Just when is the issue, when...
Re:They're not really super fast. (Score:1)
We're not talking theoretical capabilities here, sorry if I made you think so.
OT, you can see people trying to emulate the Doom enigne with canvas in Firefox.. It's certainly possible but the results are well.. not worth the hassle.
But will it run... (Score:5, Funny)
Being a Quantum computer, it can both run Linux, and NOT run Linux at the same time.
Re:But will it run... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:But will it run... (Score:1)
(for those who aren't in the know - look up what happens to Schroedinger's cat
Re:But will it run... (Score:1)
Re:But will it run... (Score:2)
That, and you can either use your OS, or determine which OS you're using, but not both.
Good science, duff reporting (Score:3, Insightful)
So, the reporter doesn't know his periodic table? I bet he's red-hot at quantum physics, though. Really brilliant and highly trained minds sometimes skip over the basic stuff, yerknow.
Bah.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Regarding the story title... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Solar wind problems? (Score:3, Interesting)
http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/sun_wi
Is it possible for solar wind to affect the ions and electrons making these calculations?
Re:Solar wind problems? (Score:1, Funny)
What about photon bits (Score:1)
Re:What about photon bits (Score:1)
Ion drives. Apparently they've taken 60 years to get here, they don't go very fast, but they're very fuel efficient. And yes, I'm off-topic. :(
Shor's Algorithm (Score:5, Interesting)
Why hasn't quantum computing gone further? Well, first you need to know that it requires your qubit to be tied to nearby qubits. When done with electrons, this is difficult because decoherence sets in very quickly.
In the end, they can "compute" with this string of qubits by bathing it in a certain frequency wavelength. What comes back are the multiple waves with the frequencies of all the prime factorizations of the initial frequency. The initial frequency cannot be greater than 2^(# of qubits).
The information I am relaying to you is from George Johnson's [talaya.net] book, A Shortcut Through Time [amazon.com]. Which is quite good.
I would also like to point out that the United States Government Lab in Los Alamos [lanl.gov] has done considerable research [lanl.gov] regarding this.
As a citizen of the U.S., you are funding this project so you have paid for and are entitled to read about their discoveries [fas.org] and I encourage you to do so if you have the time.
The reason for all this research? ~ From the Wiki Talk on Shor's Algorithm [wikipedia.org]
Re:Shor's Algorithm (Score:2)
-l
What's a qubit? (Score:3, Funny)
What's a qubit?
Zwo-pah
(apologies to Bill Cosby)
Re:What's a qubit? (Score:1)
Perhaps a relative of Qbert? maybe his son....
qubit! The next generation
Other applications of cheaper ion traps (Score:1)