Researchers Find New Way To Build Quantum Computers (reuters.com) 53
An anonymous reader shares a report: Researchers in Australia have found a new way to build quantum computers which they say would make them dramatically easier and cheaper to produce at scale. Quantum computers promise to harness the strange ability of subatomic particles to exist in more than one state at a time to solve problems that are too complex or time-consuming for existing computers. The team from the University of New South Wales say they have invented a new chip design based on a new type of quantum bit, the basic unit of information in a quantum computer, known as a qubit. The new design would allow for a silicon quantum processor to overcome two limitations of existing designs: the need for atoms to be placed precisely, and allowing them to be placed further apart and still be coupled. Crucially, says project leader Andrea Mello, this so-called "flip-flop qubit" means the chips can be produced using the same device technology as existing computer chips.
Researchers find new way to build quantum computer (Score:4, Funny)
Turns out, you can do that with LEGO bricks!
Re:Researchers find new way to build quantum compu (Score:5, Funny)
There's no way of knowing if one's been left on the floor until you stand on it.
To return to the topic... (Score:3)
From what I've read, they have an idea, but they haven't actually built one of these yet.
So this is - at present anyway - just handwaving.
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Hate to break this to you but that's how things work. Do you think your modern computer just jumped out perfected from the sweat of the giant Ymir?
Theory first - practice later. Just doing things without theoretical background is generally a waste of time and money (with a few exceptions).
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Do you think your modern computer just jumped out perfected from the sweat of the giant Ymir?
Sure, but how many discarded theories went by the wayside on the way to the modern computer? Odds are long for any new theory to pan out in the end. I agree that it will be far more interesting when they demonstrate something. IBM and Microsoft have real, honest to goodness quantum computers working right now - and are apparently on track to get the qubit count up to useful levels.
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Sure, but how many discarded theories went by the wayside on the way to the modern computer?
Dunno, I'm still waiting for 640k to be enough for anybody.
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Yes but do you think they (or others) would get funding and/or sponsoring to try out a new idea (which it AFAIK genuinely is) without doing the basic research first?
Manufacturing chips is expensive especially if one can't use a normal shuttle run, one have to have sponsors to pay for it.
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Agreed, and it's notable that this group hasn't gotten any funding to make hardware - if that's even a goal for them. I don't think anyone is saying this work isn't a good thing - it's just a little premature to call it "news" when it is much more likely to be a dead-end.
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That I can agree with!
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Hate to break this to you but that's how things work. Do you think your modern computer just jumped out perfected from the sweat of the giant Ymir?
Theory first - practice later. Just doing things without theoretical background is generally a waste of time and money (with a few exceptions).
I hate to break it to you, but I first read about IBM reaching this stage of qubits in a magazine in the mid-nineties. I've been waiting ever since.
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Yes? Don't see how that's relevant? The thing I protested against was the implication that this was just handwaving because they hadn't done physical circuits. This is much more than basic theory as they have simulated systems and tried to make it something that _can_ be manufactured and tested.
One shouldn't get excited yet but that doesn't imply the research is just hand waving.
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There's no way of knowing if one's been left on the floor until you stand on it.
Kind of like having a dog...
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Pain is the Lego Computer's I/O channel.
Reseacrhers find new way to extract (Score:1)
VC funding money, news at 11. We now return you to creimer with his next affiliate spam shitposting.
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Reuse the cardboard boxes (Score:2)
How can I be sure it works?
>> That's what our Global Services are for. Gotta go!
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It's easy, really. (Score:2)
Building a quantum computer is easy, you just need to find a reliable source of quantums from which to build.
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Seems your cat sucks?
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As dumb as it is to reply, I still have to say that the plural of quantum is quanta.
tl;dr paper not published yet so puff piece (Score:2)
see subject
FYI paper already published... (Score:3)
FYI paper already published. Here's the final paper link [nature.com], and the pre-print [arxiv.org]...
Abstract
Practical quantum computers require a large network of highly coherent qubits, interconnected in a design robust against errors. Donor spins in silicon provide state-of-the-art coherence and quantum gate fidelities, in a platform adapted from industrial semiconductor processing. Here we present a scalable design for a silicon quantum processor that does not require precise donor placement and leaves ample space for the routing of interconnects and readout devices. We introduce the flip-flop qubit, a combination of the electron-nuclear spin states of a phosphorus donor that can be controlled by microwave electric fields. Two-qubit gates exploit a second-order electric dipole-dipole interaction, allowing selective coupling beyond the nearest-neighbor, at separations of hundreds of nanometers, while microwave resonators can extend the entanglement to macroscopic distances. We predict gate fidelities within fault-tolerance thresholds using realistic noise models. This design provides a realizable blueprint for scalable spin-based quantum computers in silicon.
Of course they haven't built it yet, so you never know...
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Then some smartass post grad will discover you can do all of that with the thermal noise of the electrons going through the silicon and than all you then needed was a pure source of randomness and that could be achieved by placing a USB cable into a hot cup of coffee. Confounding the senior big-science researchers who had been trying to solve that problem for decades.
Boxes (Score:4, Funny)
I thought this was going to involve cats in boxes.
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More info (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub... [eurekalert.org]
It sounds like what they did is change from magnetic controls to electric controls for manipulating and reading the quantum state of a phosphorous atom. Apparently they can use an electron to actuate spin changes which ripple to the P atom and allow for larger coupling distances. I'm guessing this is what allows them to more easily embed the qubit in silicon. Interesting but I'd still like to see a prototype.
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Maybe you should wait until there is at least a theoretical possibility to build a quantum computer capable of breaking standard encryption? We are _far_ away from that point.
STOP AND READ BEFORE MAKING A JOKE (Score:1)
A quantum mechanics superposition joke has already been made in the thread. Please refrain from telling this joke for the billionth time.