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D-Wave Systems previews a 2000-qubit quantum processor

by Mark Tyson on 29 September 2016, 14:01

Tags: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)

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Vancouver, Canada-based D-Wave Systems has previewed a new 2000-qubit processor at its first users' conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The new processor doubles the number of qubits over the previous generation D-Wave 2X system and can thus tackle larger, more diverse problems and cut processing time. Early tests of the processor and new control features have shown performance gains of up to 1000x compared to last year's D-Wave 2X. D-Wave has already built a quantum computing system based upon the new processor, which it describes as its most advanced ever.

The D-Wave user conference yesterday.

As hinted at in the intro, the new system allows users to tweak and tune the quantum annealing process to suit the individual solution being computed. Quantum annealing is a tool used to solve optimisation (and probabilistic sampling) problems. Optimisation calculations are similar to in an energy minimisation solution in physics – the computer finds the optimal, most efficient solution possible (while considering many factors) by finding the lowest trough on a map of possibilities. Quantum computers can 'tunnel' through the landscape of the chart to find optimal solutions much faster than a binary computer.

D-Wave's growing user base, including the likes of NASA and Google, have helped it design features and capabilities to "provide quantifiable benefits". The new ability to tune the quantum algorithm to improve application performance is a case in point. The latest generation 2000-qubit quantum processor "can enable machine learning applications that we believe are not available on classical systems," asserts D-Wave CEO, Vern Brownell. D-Wave is also working on software tools and on training the first generation of quantum programmers.

Looking back over the D-Wave quantum processor development, it's good to see the doubling of available processor qubits every 2 years or so. The latest 2000-qubit quantum processor from D-Wave makes impressive progress, with its doubling in qubits, if it can indeed work 1,000 times faster than the previous generation D-Wave 2X machine.



HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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Yes, but can it run Crysis 3? (sorry,couldnt resist)
i bet the bods who bought last year`s model are plenty pissed
i mean, a thousand times faster
a thousand
Tech GROUP: DanceWithUnix/CAT-THE-FIFTH and all the rest scientists explain to me how quantum computers work and also expand on the following statement: Quantum computers can ‘tunnel’ through the landscape of the chart to find optimal solutions much faster than a binary computer.
lumireleon
Tech GROUP: DanceWithUnix/CAT-THE-FIFTH and all the rest scientists explain to me how quantum computers work and also expand on the following statement: Quantum computers can ‘tunnel’ through the landscape of the chart to find optimal solutions much faster than a binary computer.

I can't explain it properly as I'm not smart enough, I just read a LOT of things and memorize them without understanding, but I can answer the last statement.

Computers work by figuring stuff out in order, so the perfect result can't be found until all results have been looked at. Quantum computers can look at all results simultaneously
lumireleon
Tech GROUP: DanceWithUnix/CAT-THE-FIFTH and all the rest scientists explain to me how quantum computers work and also expand on the following statement: Quantum computers can ‘tunnel’ through the landscape of the chart to find optimal solutions much faster than a binary computer.

You may have heard of “Schrödinger's cat”, you need to get your head around that first:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat

So the idea of a quantum computer is that while a normal computer can use a 32 bit binary register to represent a single number up to 4 billion, in a quantum computer they represent all 4 billion possible values at the same time. When the computer does the equivalent of open the cat's box, the bits collapse into the result value. It would be useful for the sorts of computing problems where you are searching for a needle in a haystack, like finding the value of an encryption key is the one a lot of people are interested in (or scared of as it will mess up current internet security).

There seems to be some debate as to just how quantum this computer is, but it seems to have enough use for people to spend big money on it.