While the technology definitely has great potential, Cath Everett argues that the much-talked about quantum revolution isn’t just around the corner. Governments around the world are competing with each other in a bid to gain first lead advantage in the up-and-coming field of quantum computing, which is expected to revolutionize everything from cellular communications and navigation to sensors and imaging.
#Quantumtechnologies exploit qubits ( #quantumbits ), which, unlike bits in traditional binary computing, can either be a zero, a one, or both simultaneously, at any point in time. This means they work with probabilities, which enables them to handle a much larger number of possible outcomes than classic devices.
As a result, quantum-based gadgets, when they appear on mass, should be much quicker but also much smaller and consume a lot less power than more traditional machines – and it is these features that are considered likely to disrupt certain markets. The first generation of quantum technologies in the shape of lasers and semiconductors certainly managed to do just that and the hope is that so-called “Quantum 2.0” will do the same.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that countries ranging from the US and UK to China and Germany should all be investing heavily in the technology – despite the fact that, while it may have been the target of serious scientific research for the last 20 years or so, few real-world, commercial applications have appeared on the market to date.
So far, it is the US that at a huge €360 million (source: Innovate UK ) per year has spent the most on it, with the government’s focus mainly being on clocks and navigation technologies. But US tech giants such as #IBM, #Intel and #Google are also spending millions on trying to build quantum computers, an endeavour to which they have been pipped to the post by Canadian start-up #D-Wave Systems.
D-Wave launched its first commercial machine in 2011, which costs an eye-watering $10 million a pop. It cannot be used for general purpose processing, however, but focuses instead on solving specialist optimization problems.
The firm’s Colin Williams, director of business development and strategic partnerships, who gave a presentation at the ‘Quantum Communications & Computing’ conference at Cambridge University’s Cambridge Computer Labs last week believes that the best use cases for such boxes are artificial intelligence and machine learning. While on the one hand, he claimed that the technology had “the potential to revolutionise deep learning”, on the other it could support applications in the financial services sector, for example, to optimize trading trajectories or forecast market instability. But interestingly Williams also added:
Quantum computing won’t replace classical machines – they’ll augment them. So quantum could undertake algorithm processing to get an approximate answer very quickly, and a classical computer could finish the processing off. So they complement each other.
http://diginomica.com/2016/09/20/quantum-computing-and-a-global-race-to-lead-the-revolution/
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