Australians Say they have Designed a New Kind of Quantum Computer

World | September 11, 2017, Monday // 13:41
Bulgaria: Australians Say they have Designed a New Kind of Quantum Computer clubz.bg

Researchers from Australia say they have designed a new type of qubit - or quantum bit, a piece of information - which they think is close to creating a real, full-size quantum computer, ScienceAlert reported.

These machines are the next step in computing technology, but for the moment hypothetical projects are many, experiments are few. And this method of scientists from the University of New South Wales is still only hypothetical.

The qubits are one step above the classical computer bits if the standard bit has 2 states - 1 or 0, switched on or off, quantum mechanics allow an electron to be in a superposition - ie. be 1, 0, the two simultaneously or any other combination of states. This allows a lot more combinations to be attempted within one bit for the same unit of time, which leads not only to faster computers but also to computing that is completely inaccessible to classic binary machines.

The fact that quantum computers may exist is already known, the problems come for the creation of real machines. Some have to take a lot of space - like the first computers located in several rooms, others are smaller but extremely complicated for production. The problem is also how to isolate and analyze the state of the individual qubit - for which we have techniques from other areas, such as the use of superconducting materials or extremely low temperatures.

However, the machines become very large - it is not a problem if it is a small number of qubits, but for a machine they need hundreds of thousands.

The Australians, however, suggest a new design - a silicon qubit called "flip-flop", not flip-flops, but the logic circuit to switch between two states in electronics, also called a flip-flop. The trigger - the signal that will change the state will be electrical rather than magnetic.

This has two advantages: first, magnets and standard electronics do not combine well; secondly, quantum entanglement can be maintained between two or more qubits over a longer distance. Which leaves room for other components needed on a computer, be it quantum, like electrodes and sensors that change the state of the qubits and detect what's new.

Australian researchers emphasize that this is still a hypothetical design, and so far there are only preliminary experimental data indicating that it can work. Work is still underway on real machine creation.

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Tags: quantum computer, qubits, Australia

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