Integrated quantum photonics
As the field has progressed new quantum algorithms have been developed which provide short and long term routes towards the demonstration of the superiority of quantum computers over their classical counterparts. Cluster state computation is now generally accepted as the approach that will be used to develop a fully fledged quantum computer. Whilst development of quantum computer will require the synthesis of many different aspects of integrated optics, boson sampling seeks to demonstrate the power of quantum computation via technologies readily available and is therefore a very promising near term algorithm to doing so. In fact shortly after its proposal there were several small scale experimental demonstrations of the boson sampling algorithm
Superconducting computing
In 1983, Bell Labs created niobium/aluminum oxide Josephson junctions that were more reliable and easier to fabricate. In 1985, the Rapid single flux quantum logic scheme, which had improved speed and energy efficiency, was developed by researchers at Moscow State University. These advances led to the United States' Hybrid Technology Multi-Threaded project, started in 1997, which sought to beat conventional semiconductors to the petaflop computing scale. The project was abandoned in 2000, however, and the first conventional petaflop computer was constructed in 2008. After 2000, attention turned to superconducting quantum computing. The 2011 introduction of reciprocal quantum logic by Quentin Herr of Northrop Grumman, as well as energy-efficient rapid single flux quantum by Hypres, were seen as major advances.