New Spin for Super Computer
By Katherine Ball
According to researchers at the University of Utah we are on the verge of a rather ground-breaking development in the race to build a super-fast quantum computer. By reading data stored in the ‘spins’ of the miniscule magnetic fields surrounding phosphorous atoms the super computer could be realised, and apparently this is a good thing.
Sound like a joke? Well its not. Modern digital computers read data through flows of negatively charged electrons. Transistors inside the computer store the data as ‘bits’ which are classed as 1 (on) or 0 (off) dependant on what electrical charge they receive. Quantum computers will be able to recognise that particles of light and matter can be in different places at the same time (yes, really) and therefore the flow can be both 1 and 0 simultaneously, making the whole thing rather quicker.
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Whilst all this hardcore nuclear physics is fairly incomprehensible for to most modestly educated folk like, it could actually be quite useful. Honestly. Apparently this ‘breakthrough’ will allow computers to run some 18 billion billion times faster which, lets face it when your waiting for some hilarious forwarded Splat the Rat game to download, will seem like quite a nice bit of technology.
But is it? Well in actual fact all this talk of quantum physics seems like a bit of an academic name-drop subtly concealed in talk of nanoscopic atoms and silicon-based nuclear spin. Let’s put this in context. Just because some Z-list ex-Big Brother contestants may have been ligging with Dean Gaffney at China Whites last weekend and coincidentally Paris Hilton decided to grace the London chav spot with her presence on the same night, does not mean they’re friends. The same goes for quantum physics and nuclear spins. The technology is subtly linked but really all they’ve done is improve on the number of qubits (quantum bits) available to store information on a memory board. Yes this is impressive and yes, I’m fairly sure that 100 monkeys on 100 typewriters would struggle to get the same result, but it is certainly not a quantum computer. As the researchers themselves say ‘If you want to compare the development of quantum computers with classical computers, we probably would be just before the discovery of the abacus’. Nicely put.
To find out more about Katherine or read more of ther articles click here.
Sound like a joke? Well its not. Modern digital computers read data through flows of negatively charged electrons. Transistors inside the computer store the data as ‘bits’ which are classed as 1 (on) or 0 (off) dependant on what electrical charge they receive. Quantum computers will be able to recognise that particles of light and matter can be in different places at the same time (yes, really) and therefore the flow can be both 1 and 0 simultaneously, making the whole thing rather quicker.
Whilst all this hardcore nuclear physics is fairly incomprehensible for to most modestly educated folk like, it could actually be quite useful. Honestly. Apparently this ‘breakthrough’ will allow computers to run some 18 billion billion times faster which, lets face it when your waiting for some hilarious forwarded Splat the Rat game to download, will seem like quite a nice bit of technology.
But is it? Well in actual fact all this talk of quantum physics seems like a bit of an academic name-drop subtly concealed in talk of nanoscopic atoms and silicon-based nuclear spin. Let’s put this in context. Just because some Z-list ex-Big Brother contestants may have been ligging with Dean Gaffney at China Whites last weekend and coincidentally Paris Hilton decided to grace the London chav spot with her presence on the same night, does not mean they’re friends. The same goes for quantum physics and nuclear spins. The technology is subtly linked but really all they’ve done is improve on the number of qubits (quantum bits) available to store information on a memory board. Yes this is impressive and yes, I’m fairly sure that 100 monkeys on 100 typewriters would struggle to get the same result, but it is certainly not a quantum computer. As the researchers themselves say ‘If you want to compare the development of quantum computers with classical computers, we probably would be just before the discovery of the abacus’. Nicely put.
To find out more about Katherine or read more of ther articles click here.
Image: David Ritter
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