back to article Quantum computing in our lifetime - IBM breakthrough

IBM boffins reckon their research has catapulted quantum computing forward a few decades, making it possible within our lifetime. The scientists say that they've come up with a way to extend the amount of time that qubits retain their quantum state, thereby reducing errors in computations. “In the past, people have said, …

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  1. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Coat

    IBM was presenting the results at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Boston today

    And simultaneously, through the magic of quantum entanglement, at the North Polar Jupiter Rularian Institute for Extreme Cleverness.

    1. Charles 9

      Someone's been reading Smith lately...

      I'm surprised Arisia wasn't contacted for discussion...but they probably already knew, and you know how they are. Now if we could just wrap our heads around the idea of neutralizing inertia...

      1. Michael Dunn
        Happy

        Re: Someone's been reading Smith lately...

        If you find a way to neutralise inertia, ring me, and I might even get up to answer the phone.

  2. JDX Gold badge

    If you believe in the Singularity, virtually everything we're working on now will happen in our lifetime.

    1. Ru

      There are precious few things that were a) possible and b) actually being worked upon during the first half of the last century that were not achieved by the end of that century. Fusion is one exception.

      If you believe in the singularity, you should probably notice that you are in one now.

      1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: Fusion is one exception

        A decent route into space is another.

        Artificial intelligence.

        Cure for cancer.

        Civilised international relations. (Does that fall foul of (a)?)

        You quibble with "working on", but just because they were barking up the wrong tree shouldn't disqualify their efforts, otherwise you have a tautology. I think "precious few" is overdoing it.

        1. That Awful Puppy
          Headmaster

          Re: Re: Fusion is one exception

          Actually, cure for cancer isn't a real thing. Cancers are very different from one another, and it's impossible to find a silver bullet that will kill them all.*

          I'd say we've made some damn good progress on this front, though.

          * I really hope I'm wrong about this.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Re: Re: Fusion is one exception

            Probably not: Cancer is actively seeking for ways to adapt itself, work around the treatment and then kill you in a messy way - just when you were feeling better and begin to think the treatment is working. Evil, that is.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Re: Re: Fusion is one exception

            well its not a silver bullet but its certainly not impossible to cure especially if as Ken Hagan said we dont find A decent route into space.

            you/your descendants might not like the cure OC as it means the sun incinerating the planet or a rouge planetoid,asteroid, black hole, lethal gamma burst, etc etc is a mathematical certainty at some point but any one of these or countless others will cure the cancers and ills we suffer today and the universe can get on with its entropy business as usual.

          3. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
            Flame

            A cure for all cancers?

            Fire. Lots of fire. Might harm the patient slightly, but there won't be any cancer left...

          4. JDX Gold badge

            Re: Re: Re: Fusion is one exception

            Nanobots/nanotech could be a silver bullet - program the same tech how to deal with different cancer types (or other bad cells/tissue).

  3. TRT Silver badge

    That sounds like a computer so vastly superior, so amazingly intelligent that it could prove the existence of income tax and rice pudding before it's even been switched ON!

    1. garbo
      Happy

      Amazing...

      but will it keep my ice cream from melting on a hot day?

    2. Michael Dunn
      Happy

      And could even give the answer to the ultimate question of "Life, the Universe and Everything!"

      1. Alvar

        More to the point, could it give the question to the ultimate answer?

  4. Matthew Smith

    Whats the story?

    They've done something "thereby reducing errors in computations.". But theres still errors. What have they cracked exactly?

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Holmes

      Re: Whats the story?

      "...found a way to extend the quantum coherence of the qubits by up to 100 microseconds, two to four times greater than previous records"

      Which means that they managed to have the qubit not leak information about its current state of superposition (aka. its current wavefunction) into the surrounding system (the "observer") for > 100 μs (i.e. avoid it getting "measured"). Apparently at that point you can do quantum error correction (I suppose, something that keeps the quantum state of interest in its superposition. like a sacrificial anode keeping a ship's hull from rusting)

      [Mr. Holmes comes nearest to the pipe-smoking, tweed-jacket-with-leather-elbow-patch-wearing professor, so there...]

  5. Andrew James

    Once we (as the species, not implying I am in any way involved in the process) have quantum computers working perfectly and processing data at speeds we can barely imagine... what will we actually do with them?

    Weather pattern projections maybe. What applications are there for this sort of thing. I feel like I'm being really dim, but i cant think of anything much at all that would make it worth the effort of inventing it lol

    1. Jerome 0
      Boffin

      If we can't think of anything to ask them, we just need to ask them what the question should be. Once they've had a good think and come up with a question, we can set them to work on the answer. Because doing it the other way around would be crazy.

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Go

      >processing data at speeds we can barely imagine

      Unfortunately, the space of NP-hard problems *will* stay out of reach. You will have P plus a few extra tendrils that become practical (as far as we know).

      But you will be able to at least build efficient simulators of quantum system.

      This should open a lot of doors in material science, possibly in experimental mathematics.

      1. Andrew James

        Yeah see, i demonstrated my lack of knowledge on the subject by asking a question and what you did was come over here waving around some experimental mathematics thats is blatantly way beyond my level of understanding.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
          Pint

          >lack of knowledge

          Don't be bashful. It just means "to all evidence, problems that are hard to solve for a classical computer will STAY hard to solve on a quantum computer (more generally, mother nature won't hand you over the keys to the car no matter what) except for some niche stuff like factorization - and simulation of physics"

    3. fajensen
      Facepalm

      What to do: Next weeks lottery numbers and kill more people faster - obviously.

    4. Tim Starling

      In theory they can be used for simulating quantum systems such as molecules, which would bring great advances in chemistry and medicine. Unfortunately the research into this application is only preliminary since the vast majority of funding has been focused on breaking public key cryptography. The ethical implications are one of the reasons I got out of the field.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        They can also use it to crack current cyphers which are based on, e.g. factoring very large numbers. And other hard maths.

  6. PyLETS
    Alert

    Factoring products of large primes

    Shor's algorithm has been run on an early quantum computer to factor 15. RSA probably aint been broken yet, and when it is we'll probably not know about it until those who are not called NSA or GCHQ can afford to buy these things.

    1. dlc.usa
      Headmaster

      Re: Factoring products of large primes

      "[...]until those who are not called NSA or GCHQ can afford to buy these things."

      I think you mean "permitted" to buy.

    2. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Factoring products of large primes

      Well, Sir Clive Sinclair made a Quantum computer years ago. With little whirry tape cartridges and everything.

    3. Chris Miller

      A common misconception

      Assuming a working quantum computer could be built today and that something similar to Moore's law will drive increases in speed and complexity, it would still be a few decades before any existing systems (e.g. 4096 bit RSA) are threatened - and by then, we'll doubtless be using new, improved cryptographic methods.

      Much more at:

      http://emergentchaos.com/archives/2008/03/quantum-progress.html

  7. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
    Coat

    Other problems

    like how to get it to make the hostess' underwear disappear and reappear three feet to the left?

  8. SB

    yeah but

    can it play crysis on ultra settings ?

  9. Paul Owen 1
    Joke

    As far as I can tell, we already have quantum computing: the things change their behaviour dependent on whether you're looking at them.

  10. Nigel Brown
    Joke

    All jolly clever

    but will it be linked to the interweb by Schroedinger's cat5?

  11. NedSeagoon

    Many years ago....

    someone from IBM predicted that the world would need just 4 computers. It looks like they are still working on that assumption.

    1. dlc.usa

      Re: Many years ago....

      That was T.J. Watson, Sr., himself, I believe (otherwise, it was Jr.). Maybe he wasn't thinking very clearly at that time.

    2. tfewster
      Joke

      Re: Many years ago....

      Ah, but Watson was right! Bureau computing, where other companies buy time off the computer owner was the obvious way to go at the time, and we're moving back to that model with cloud computing...

  12. RCA

    I believe we will get the hardware right sometime,

    But I don't trust software! The human factor in software, soon with so much computing horsepower, will enable coders to get real sloppy and get away with it -- for a while.

    Imagine running the Star Trek Enterprise, with the entire control systems crashing, rebooting, needing new drivers and anti-virus software. Mal-ware and ad-ware popping up everywhere, with very little consequence to your system resources. Heck, a glitch in the holideck may get you killed!

    1. TheOtherHobbes

      Quantum software

      may or may not work. By definition.

      So no changes there then.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Andrew James

    Think how much data is gathered and analysed every day. Google, Investment banks, protein modeling.....

    You might not like some of the applications but you can be sure there will be a LOT of money involved in the outcomes.

    1. Andrew James

      Re: @Andrew James

      Imagine how quickly the banks could destroy the world as we know it if they could calculate things at these speeds.

      And google, the restraints upon their evil would just fall away.

      Facebook would be able to update my status without my input too, so thats good. I wouldnt need to put any effort into letting my family know how i'm doing. Qubits = psychic, right?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Re: @Andrew James

        Hence: "You might not like the applications"

      2. fajensen
        Terminator

        Re: Re: @Andrew James

        The banks are already running on quantum money - The "assets" are right there in the accounts, but when one decide to measure it: PooF -> Instant insolvency. MFGlobal evaporated all of the clients collateral while at the same time not triggering a margin call.

  14. Stig2k
    Happy

    Re "... what will we actually do with them?"

    Two words - Starship HoloDeck

  15. SirDigalot

    RE: I believe we will get the hardware right sometime,

    >Imagine running the Star Trek Enterprise, with the entire control systems crashing, rebooting, needing new drivers and anti-virus software. Mal-ware and ad-ware popping up everywhere, with very little consequence to your system resources. Heck, a glitch in the holideck may get you killed!<

    It does that every week, as soon as someone makes the camera wobble propulsion lights life support power and the captains personal replicator always go offline, sometimes it does it without anyone doing a thing, however the difference is, they always fix it in the last 5 minutes ( well 15 with commercials) if only real life problems were like that.

  16. Dave 32
    Paris Hilton

    What will we do with them?

    Based on current computer applications:

    Porn.

    FPS games

    Pirating movies/music

    Oh, and maybe some other stuff for .001% of the time. ;-)

    Dave

    1. proto-robbie
      Pirate

      Re: What will we do with them?

      Mapping the grumbleplex?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well, you could crack RSA or the DLP...

    Hopefully the world's banking systems and the 'Net wil have switched to something unaffected by QC by then.

    1. MrZoolook

      Re: Well, you could crack RSA or the DLP...

      "Hopefully the world's banking systems ... will have switched to something unaffected by QC by then."

      They already have systems that are unaffected by Quality Control.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Deep thought

    I've never been an early adopter. I prefer to wait until the bugs have been ironed out. So I'll probably hang on for the successor; a computer whose merest operating parameters the Quantum computer will not be worthy to calculate.

  19. AndGregor
    Coat

    skynet++

    A puter powered by the underlying force that controls the whole universe.. what could possibly go wrong ? Assuming we aren't in a singularity.. inside another singularity.

  20. t_lark

    Applications

    I think logistics will be a big winner. Yay! 5p shaved off the cost of *everything*. (that and other graphy things like gene analysis)

  21. mfritz0
    Alien

    Quantum Entanglement

    Possibly, just possibly, when the quantum computer finally gets released and stable it will be found that interstellar communication through quantum entanglement will be a side effect of all those Qubits vibrating, causing other quantum computers in nearby stellar systems to take notice.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But

    Just imagine adjusting your Facebook security settings when each one can be on and off at the same time.

  23. Rocketman
    Alien

    Quantum Computing will not be like we see it now

    Since we are all being very funny here perhaps you can humor my conjecture. Since I can't think of anything funny right now.

    If you consider the observations that quantum theory is based upon and if you look at the principles involved, I think you have to conclude that what is occurring at the quantum level is outside of time. Furthermore we interface with what is going on through our observations which have not so much led thus far to an understanding of the multidimensional aspects of our universe but rather some ways to model some of what is going on at that level and make some mechanical predictions.

    What I'm saying is that quantum computing will not be done as we see it now. It will develop. I would like to think that in the least, however, once a problem was properly set up the answer would be instantaneous. Also if we can use the properties/anomalies of quantum level physics that arise from observation, that is, consciousness, this will lead to some very interesting capabilities, even a new kind of A.I.

    I would like to see a quantum computing module, much like an HPC card, which can be used in a conventional computer for experimentation or advanced computing.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Quantum Computing will not be like we see it now

      That last paragraph's an interesting thought, and if Quantum Computing really becomes ubiquitous, it may reach the level you state. However, since QC is in its infancy and doesn't really involve a lot of existing existing tech, things are moving slowly. I don't think it'll reach consumer level for a while. I give it about 20 years or so to reach that level barring government intervention.

  24. Purlieu

    Banks

    I thought the banks used a ZX81 for clearing, which is why it takes 3 days

  25. bahamut
    Alien

    Soon,

    they will discover the very same phenomenon in the human brain.

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