Developed the first programmable quantum computer – Hipertextual

Scientists at the University of Maryland have created the first quantum computer Programmable, a feature that had not been achieved to date. The device, which employs five quantum bits, or qubits, could be scaled up to larger dimensions, say the researchers in a paper published in Nature , although this possibility has not been demonstrated yet.

the first programmable quantum computer solves mathematical operations in a single step

the equipment developed by Shantanu Debnath is based on one of the quantum architectures more old, which was devised in 1995 thanks to the work of the Spanish physicist Juan Ignacio Cirac and Austrian Peter Zoller . Quantum bits are stored in individual atomic ions that are “trapped” in line with the use of powerful lasers and magnetic fields. Ions behave as a small crystal, so that it can control the vibrations accurately and thus cause the ions remain intertwined.

This interlacing allows operation of the quantum computer, a device in Cirac words: “solves the same problems as usual computers, what happens that much faster.” Instead of using the usual rules computers, as zeroes and ones, logic gates or combination of logic gates, work with standards quantum physics . This allows them to work faster and, above all, solve problems with great efficiency. The challenge, explained Cirac to Hipertextual , it is that there is still a real quantum computer, but only have small prototypes.

Credit: Shantanu Debnath and Emily Edwards <. / p>

the quantum computer designed in the United States does not cease to be a tiny prototype, similar to those created by Google or IBM. Its processor allows you to solve simple algorithms even more slowly than conventional computers. The results of this work, however, provide very important conclusions about the performance of a quantum computer.

The design of the quantum computer is based on an architecture proposed by Juan Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller in 1995

According to findings published in Nature , some of these algorithms use quantum effects to calculate mathematical operations in a single pass, while a traditional computer would need several operations. Also, the qubits are stored in five ions trapped and can be manipulated by lasers, besides being reconfigured without manipulating the hardware.

The study also shows a efficiency 98% when carrying out these operations. “The next challenge of these technologies is to demonstrate that quantum error correction error rates bring computing to negligible levels.” Both this quantum computer based on the architecture of Cirac and Zoller, as devices created from other designs have the potential to be scaled and change computing. It will be a matter of time to succeed.