“Quantum Computing.” It’s one of those things that bring a sparkle to the eyes of propellerheads — and make the rest of us just scratch our heads.

But it’s been a holy grail in the arcane world of supercomputers — and a Canadian firm claims it will be unveiling one on Tuesday. Nevermind that most engineers thought quantum computers were decades away.

D-Wave Systems, Inc., based near Vancouver, is the company that’s been working on the project. Its machine is described as a computer that can perform 64,000 calculations at once.

Following the odd laws of quantum mechanics, the digital “bits” that race through its circuits will be able to stand for 0 or 1 at the same time, allowing the machine, eventually, to do work that is orders of magnitude more complex than what today’s computers can do.

“There are certain classes of problems that can’t be solved with digital computers,” said Herb Martin, the firm’s CEO, over a decidedly-noisy digital cell phone. “Digital computers are good at running programs; quantum computers are good at handling massive sets of variables.” 

Not everyone is convinced

Will this actually happen any time soon? Much of the computing world is skeptical. Major companies, such as IBM and NEC, have done years of research without results so far.

Even Seth Lloyd of MIT, a computer scientist whose research is cited as a major source of D-Wave’s work, has been quoted as saying that while he’s happy they’re trying, he’ll wait to see what they’ve done.

So, could be a hoax similar to cold fusion.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Read the rest of the story here -

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2864363&page=1

D-wave has been talking about this for a long time, and it does sound like bs.
But, if it’s a hoax; would could possibly be the point?

eovti - 13 February 2007 12:51 PM

But, if it’s a hoax; would could possibly be the point?

Artifically raise the stock for a short time?

Marketing?  Raising awareness of the company?  There’s no such thing as bad press.

Well I’m still waiting for the announcement

By it’s very nature a quantum computer is both there and not there at the same time
At least until some one observes whether or not it’s there at which point, hmm not really sure what happens then.

Am I confusing this with quantum cats!!!

You guys know what this means right?  Super awesome video games!

Sharruma - 13 February 2007 04:28 PM

By it’s very nature a quantum computer is both there and not there at the same time
At least until some one observes whether or not it’s there at which point, hmm not really sure what happens then.

Am I confusing this with quantum cats!!!

It’s more like you can’t tell if the computer is working or not, not until you open the cabinet to see for yourself, and the Universe splits into two different versions, one where the computer is working and one where it’s not!
The mind boggles!

So this isn’t the computer that randomly places you in a timeline defined by your own life?

*Whew*

I was a little worried about the Blue Screen of Death with that one.

Maybe they’ll claim that due to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, they’ve lost track of the computer. . .

Well, it’s not exactly a hoax…

[quote author=“Scientific American”]
First “Commercial” Quantum Computer Solves Sudoku Puzzles
Quantum computing company banks on a longshot form of quantum computing
By JR Minkel

A Canadian manufacturer today unveiled what it called “the world’s first commercially viable quantum computer.” D-Wave Systems, Inc., “The Quantum Computing Company,” during a much ballyhooed rollout at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., hailed the new device as a big step toward the age of quantum computing, decades earlier than scheduled.

But experts say the announcement may be a bit—er—premature. Even if the computer were to work as advertised, it still would be nearly 1,000 times too small to solve problems that stump ordinary computers. Moreover, researchers do not know whether it will work at bigger sizes.

[...]

D-Wave announced that it has constructed a 16-bit version crafted from the superconducting element niobium. “What we’ve built is really a systems-level proof of concept,” says Geordie Rose, D-Wave’ co-founder and chief technology officer. “We want to get people’s imagination stimulated.”

For the demonstration, he says D-Wave operators remotely controlled the quantum computer, housed in Burnaby, British Columbia, from a laptop in California. The quantum computer was given three problems to solve: searching for molecular structures that match a target molecule, creating a complicated seating plan, and filling in Sudoku puzzles.

[More here…]

I imagine wedding planners and sudoku nuts are just thronging to D-Wave’s site to get their hands on this essential cutting-edge tool.