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Friday, February 10, 2017

TECH SPECIAL .....Soon, a computer million times faster than PCs

Quantum
Computers Closer To Reality As Researchers Make First Blueprint For Prototype

Scientists have produced the first-ever blueprint for a
large-scale quantum computer in a development that could bring about a
technological revolution on a par with the invention of computing itself.

Present quantum computers have just a fraction of the processing
power they are capable of producing. Researchers believe they have overcome the
main problems that have prevented the construction of powerful machines.

They are currently building a prototype and a full-scale quantum
computer. Such de vices work by utilising the magical properties found in the
world of the very small, where an atom can apparently exist in two different
places at the same time. Professor Winfried Hensinger, head of Ion Quantum
Technology Group at Sussex University , research head, said, “It is the Holy
Grail of science, to build a quantum computer. And we are now publishing the actual
nutsand-bolts construction plan for a large-scale quantum com puter.“ “Life
will change completely. We will be able to do certain things we could never
even dream of before,“ he said.

He said small quantum computers had been built in the past but
to test the theories.

The problem is that existing quantum computers require lasers
focused on individual atoms. The larger the computer, the more lasers are
required and greater the chance of going wrong. But Hensinger and colleagues
used a different technique to monitor the atoms, involving a microwave field
and electricity in an `ion-trap' device.“What we have is a solution that we can
scale to arbitrary (computing) power,“ he said.

“Within two years we think we will have completed a prototype
which incorporates all the technology in this blueprint. It's extraordinarily
expensive so we need industry partners ... this will be in the 10s of millions,
up to £100m.“

Commenting on the research, described in the journal Science
Advances, some academics expressed caution about how quickly it could be
developed. Dr Toby Cubitt of said, “Ion traps were one of the earliest
proposals. Though there's still a long way to go before you'll be making
spreadsheets on your quantum computer.“