Quantum Computing: IBM’s Quantum Computer

Many people have never heard of cloud computing, let alone quantum computing. IBM has been a leading pioneer in starting up their quantum computer experiment. Typically this type of computing is only found in top level academics and organizations such as Google and NASA. IBM is trying to change this by bringing quantum computing to the masses through a simple web-browser interface from any device that is connected to the internet. This can be seen below. For many people this may not be a big deal, but for many researchers or other organizations looking to build a practical quantum computer, IBM is looking to help them out. David DiVincenzo, a professor at the Institute for Quantum Information at RWTH Aachen University and one of quantum computing’s earliest pioneers, believes the service will lead to more. “I think that someone out there will learn things about the behavior of this quantum computer,” he says, “that its developers never thought of.”  Quantum computing is far more powerful than today’s machines and this professor has high hopes of changing the way people compute. This means that people who do not have the background or expertise to build a quantum computer can use the simple interface to view quantum computing from a different perspective rather than from a developer’s perspective. This may lead to many new advances in technology from better understanding DNA sequences to predict how the stock market will fluctuate.

Quantum computing differs from traditional computing with its binary language. Traditional computers can only hold a single “bit” of information such as a 1 or a 0 at one time. Quantum computing uses a “qubit”, which stores both traditional bits at one time based on the “superposition principle”.  Two qubits would be 00, 01, 10, and 11 and could be stored simultaneously. Which means in theory, if more qubits were added, one could make a machine far more powerful than anything that exists today. Another great feature about the IBM quantum computer is that it produces the same result each time. Before this, it was much more difficult to reproduce results using a quantum computer due to the complex nature, but IBM has started to figure out this issue. IBM has made it possible for anyone in the world to use their quantum computer, which makes it possible for anyone to use it. I believe this quantum computer will lead to great technological discoveries from the science field to consumer products. This may change the future of computing as we know it.

IBM

Source:

http://www.wired.com/2016/05/ibm-letting-anyone-play-quantum-computer/