Quantum Computing - Not as far away as one thinks

T

thisbechuck

Mac-ing
Woah, now this is interesting... Give it a look, there are far too many amazing ideas in this article for me to summarize them in this post. http://www.sciam.com/2002/0602issue/0602awschalom.html

I was especially interested with the idea of MRAM (you'll find out about it in the article) and I pondered the possibility of if they were able to mini-size MRAM, it could possibly even replace the current computer harddrive. I decided to do a few searches on the subject and I discovered that Motorola was deep into MRAM research. Infact, they plan to go on the market with the first divices in year '04.
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010208S0044

Quantum computing, wow. Something kind of clicked in my mind when I saw this, especially when I found out that Motorola was deeply researching the subject. I know that Morotola and Apple have been fairly close in the making of Apollo and the like, so maybe this post can also be taken as a rumor that Apple and Moto are hand in hand creating the G7, the first desktop quantum computer. Hell, a guy can dream, right? :D

-Chuck
 
When I first encountered the term Quantum Computing, it was pure speculation: computing based on the effects of quantum mechanics. It was fascinating, but far fetched.

A year later, the first quantum "gate" - the quantum equivalent of a single transistor - was up and running in a research lab. There was a lot of speculation about what it would mean to program one of these computers.

A couple of years drifted by, and I decided to check up on some sites to see how things were progressing. By this time, there were entire processors, made up of several gates, actually carrying out instructions.

While we are still in early days yet, it is only a matter of time before quantum computing becomes a reality.

Hey :D 500 Posts! Do I get a congrats thread? :rolleyes: Well, I hope some of them were meaningful.
 
That's pretty cool. This kid in my math class did a report on quantum computers but i didn't expect anything to really happen for a good 10-20 years. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple and/or motorolla first used this new technology to build a personal computer.
 
I'm currently doing my post-grade degree in Computer science, and majoring in Quantum/DNA/etc Computing :D :D

Yeah!, Quantum computers will kick ass. Although, I don't now if Quantum computers will replace our silicon computers any time soon though. They are amazingly good at solving some problems that a silicon computer is very bad at - or even solving problems that are thought to be beyond what is theoretically possible with a conventional computer (such as solving the Halting problem).

But a conventional computer will still probably be faster/cheaper at doing what we do currently with em.

For one thing quantum computers are probabilistic - so there will be some probability that you may get the right answer from it. Can you imagine starting up your mac and there being a 50% chance of it displaying the Happy mac and a 50% chance that it may instead show you any one of the possible combinations of those pixels!!!

Okay.. so that makes it sound like Quantum computers aren't of much practical use.. but when you consider that they give us any probability at ALL of solving some problems that a conventional computer would take billions of years, or maybe even an infinite amount of time, to solve.. then you can see that Quantum computers will be one of the more amazing achievements of humanity (Okay okay I'm very biased).

Sorry Louise Parrish, it's such a big area, I don't really now where to start with explaining it, but if anyone has any specific questions I'll be happy to try and answer them (although I'm no physicist :p ).
 
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