FEATURE
Time machines - oh, boy!
Steady on Sam, I love science fiction as much as the next geek but I'm not talking about Quantum Leap here. This is even more exciting than time travel.OK, so what is this quantum computing lark then?
Quantum computing and quantum information processing are research efforts that seek to exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to perform tasks such as massively parallel computing. The quantum research field also encompasses quantum cryptography, which utilises quantum phenomena to guarantee secure communications. What are these quantum phenomena you talk of?
Tsk! Clearly weren't paying attention in physics class were you?Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that describes all manner of weirdness and 'spooky behaviour' - that is, quantum phenomena - taking place at the atomic and sub-atomic levels where electrons, protons and other particles exist. The quantum world's spooky behaviour, for example, sees matter and energy able to behave both like particles and waves simultaneously, and apparently exist in two places at once.My head hurts.
That's to be expected. All of this quantum weirdness is deeply counter-intuitive - if not downright bizarre - to our human brains because it stands in stark contrast to the classical physics we experience in our everyday lives. Thanks for the physics refresher - but what does all this spooky behaviour have to do with computers?
Good question. Instead of having bits, as a classical computer does, which represent either a one or a zero, a quantum computer has quantum bits - qubits - which can represent zero, one, or a superposition of both - that is, any amount of either zero and one simultaneously. As a result, unlike a traditional computer which can only store one number in a single register at any one time, a quantum computer can store more than one. Adding more qubits exponentially increases the size of the number that can be stored - a computer with a 100 qubits would be able to store a massive number in its register, for instance.As well as qubits, another key element of quantum computing is a phenomena known as entanglement. Read more: silicon.com
Time machines - oh, boy!
Steady on Sam, I love science fiction as much as the next geek but I'm not talking about Quantum Leap here. This is even more exciting than time travel.OK, so what is this quantum computing lark then?
Quantum computing and quantum information processing are research efforts that seek to exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to perform tasks such as massively parallel computing. The quantum research field also encompasses quantum cryptography, which utilises quantum phenomena to guarantee secure communications. What are these quantum phenomena you talk of?
Tsk! Clearly weren't paying attention in physics class were you?Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics that describes all manner of weirdness and 'spooky behaviour' - that is, quantum phenomena - taking place at the atomic and sub-atomic levels where electrons, protons and other particles exist. The quantum world's spooky behaviour, for example, sees matter and energy able to behave both like particles and waves simultaneously, and apparently exist in two places at once.My head hurts.
That's to be expected. All of this quantum weirdness is deeply counter-intuitive - if not downright bizarre - to our human brains because it stands in stark contrast to the classical physics we experience in our everyday lives. Thanks for the physics refresher - but what does all this spooky behaviour have to do with computers?
Good question. Instead of having bits, as a classical computer does, which represent either a one or a zero, a quantum computer has quantum bits - qubits - which can represent zero, one, or a superposition of both - that is, any amount of either zero and one simultaneously. As a result, unlike a traditional computer which can only store one number in a single register at any one time, a quantum computer can store more than one. Adding more qubits exponentially increases the size of the number that can be stored - a computer with a 100 qubits would be able to store a massive number in its register, for instance.As well as qubits, another key element of quantum computing is a phenomena known as entanglement. Read more: silicon.com
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