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IBM unveils its most powerful quantum processor

116 points| rbanffy | 8 years ago |engadget.com | reply

23 comments

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[+] poizan42|8 years ago|reply
> the platform can already solve problems that were considered too complex for classical computer systems to handle

Uhm, quantum computers can be simulated by a classic computer with exponential slowdown. So the speedup can be no more than on the order of 2^17 = 131072. But I think it's fair to assume that a single operation on the quantum computer is much much slower than state of the art classic computers. So doesn't it seems doubtful that they can actually do anything faster with this than with a classic computer? I would think that we have to get in the high 20's to low 30's of qbits before it can actually beat a classic computer or a cluster of them.

[+] greeneggs|8 years ago|reply
As far as I can tell, IBM has not unveiled anything at all, and this Engadget journalist is just misinterpreting an IBM statement on "quantum volume." Does anyone have a link to an IBM release? In particular, it looks like the public can still only access a five-qubit device.

https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/community?channe...

[+] tcfunk|8 years ago|reply
Just imagine how quickly companies will be able to match your profile with suitable advertisements! The dream is real.
[+] knlje|8 years ago|reply
I missed the first release of 5 qubit processor since the IBM website has so much marketing jargon. I find some papers in arXiv where they use the processor. Is there any reference demonstrating that this is a true quantum processor? I'd like to see some non-classical scaling with respect to N, etc.
[+] rdtsc|8 years ago|reply
It looks like it's a real quantum processor and not just a simulated annealing engine like D-Wave?
[+] omarforgotpwd|8 years ago|reply
Wait, so how I can write quantum instructions and run them through IBM's cloud? How long before someone gets Shor's algorithm running and destroys the world?
[+] desdiv|8 years ago|reply
You need around 4000 qubits to break RSA-2048; IBM's system only have 17 qubits so far.
[+] wowtip|8 years ago|reply
And following that, what is the likelihood some government agency already have secret projects with larger number of bits already?
[+] snorrah|8 years ago|reply
Or DOES it? Sorry, bad quantum joke ;)
[+] ChuckMcM|8 years ago|reply
I thought it was funny, that and the one where gcc doesn't tell you if your program compiled or not on quantum computers, until you observe the object file it is both syntactically correct and uncompilable.
[+] msl09|8 years ago|reply
I was about to give a bunch of praise for raising its ability to reach the community and create a very engaging video but then they pulled out an introduction page[0] that does not work on firefox (the SVGs for the superposition states render as blanks).

So close.

[0] - https://quantumexperience.ng.bluemix.net/qx/tutorial?section...