Md. Sadat Hussain Rafsanjani :
Perhaps the most expensive computer that a person (or a millionaire) can afford and add it to his desk is a computer known as quantum computer. This is the most advanced and world’s fastest computer ever created! Well, let me remind you, good things come with good price. D-Wave (code name Orion), a company from Canada, backed by Lockheed Martin, NASA and CIA, is interested in selling a single unit quantum computer to willing individuals at roughly $10 million! Amazed! Just hold on. More facts are coming. It was believed that the coldest place in the universe is 5000 light years away from the earth called Boomerang nebula where the temperature is -458 degree F. But a typical 10 feet long D-Wave Two model quantum compute requires -459.6 degree F for the niobium computer chip.
Albert Einstein first theorized quantum computation. Paul Benioff in 1981 tried to apply quantum theory in a turning machine. Later in 1982 researcher Richard F. first considered that a mechanical system can be developed with the concept of quantum computation in his mind although the concept he showed was an abstract idea. A quantum computer is a specially designed computer that is based on the q-bits and quantum logic gates rather than classical computer made of bits. Bit means binary digit. A binary number is consisted of 1 and 0 thus any number can be represented using any combination of them. For instance, 1 represents presence of voltage and zero represent absence; it is a physical way to understand the current status, true or false actually. But q-bit or quantum bit is a bit that bears a single unit of quantum information. It is a two state quantum mechanical system, called polarization. The polarization can be horizontal or vertical. It can exist in the two positions concurrently. In a classical computer, numbers of three bit length can be put in a register where the limit is only one but a q-bit can put all eight combinations of binary numbers at a time. That is with binary we had only two options but q-bit has yes, no and all maybes. The quantum computer is more complex and powerful than a super computer and designed for processing huge amount of data. Before get in the depth of quantum computing, let’s have a look at the internal mechanism of a classical computer.
A computer is a machine that’s sole purpose is performing computation. According to the standard definition, computation is anything that can be done by a turning machine. A turning machine is an instructional machine that can evaluate any problem and draw a valid conclusion for a finite state automaton. It was first theorized by Alan Turning in 1930s. The postulates forsworn a rough sketch that a turning machine is a device having unlimited length of tapes containing squares where each can be left blank or hold any symbol. By reading these squares a read-write head interprets instructions and executes them. The tape mechanism is replicated in a quantum computer in quantum state. All turning machine have one thing in common, it takes either exponential or polynomial amount of time to solve any problem. Thus a computer designed in classical architecture has only two states, binary zero (off) or one (on). But q-bit represents upward direction or downward direction or a clock wise direction. As the mechanism is special, it takes specially designed algorithms to solve problems in a quantum computer. It is very difficult to develop such a complex algorithm to gain quantum parallelism. An algorithm is a finite set of steps to solve a particular problem. The efficiency of the algorithm is measured by time. The algorithm must not increase no faster than the polynomial size of the input. Such an algorithm is quantum random walk search algorithm. Another famous quantum algorithm is Shor’s algorithm that was first devised on 19 December, 2001 in IBM. It was the first quantum algorithm devised in 1994 by Peter Shor. The algorithm is specially designed for factorization of large prime numbers. Shor algorithm was a killer application. A killer app is an application that requires specially designed hardware to run just like the first calculating software “VisiCalc” developed in 1980s especially for Macintosh pc. It is really very challenging to factorize a large prime number as a classical computer can take hundreds of years to solve it. That’s how RAS encryption algorithm evolved, the most secure encryption method till date. It is believed that, quantum computer can break the encryption in just two seconds. Thus some have disputed that if quantum computer is developed, there will be no security. Although scientists have developed a workable unit to perform quantum computing, an exact mechanism is yet to be achieved, may take years ahead.
Gordon Moor predicted in his famous law that the number of transistors that can be put in a square inch on an integrated circuit would double per 18 months. For more than four decades the law was held true and universal. But recent advancement in IC technology has surpassed the limit thus the requiring size of the transistor would be reduced to the atomic level. This can be easily witnessed by an old model of Pentium computer that contains more than thirty million transistors embedded in it. It is possible to reduce the size but tiny pathway of electronic signals would corrupt the signal. Also a digital computer produces results serially while a quantum computer can process data simultaneously. This is called concurrency. A 30 q-bit quantum computer data processing power can be comparable to a traditional computer processing ten trillion floating-point operations per second. Although a typical desktop computer can carry out gigaflops operation only! However the most advanced quantum computer we have can carry out 16 q-bit, others are still in theory.
Quantum computer is based on two basic concepts of quantum mechanics called superposition and entanglement, both requires a lot of mathematics to understand fully! For a shadowy overview we can assume some points and would like to understand the basics. The computer encodes information in q-bits and these q-bits can represent electron, photon, and ion state or even mimic the processor or memory. They can be represented simultaneously thus a parallelism state is achieved. The q-bits are created in atomic level; no human eye can watch that. But they can be activated and controlled by control devices. Ion traps use optical of magnetic or a combination of both to do that sort of controlling. Other controllers are like superconductor circuits and semiconductors found in common electrical circuits. Optical traps also are also used. Quantum dots controls electrons are made of semiconductors. The superposition theorizes that in quantum state, an electron can take the state of all possible states but when measured only one result is found. Moreover, the entanglement theory says, when applying force on two atoms, one atom can take on the state of another thus when left alone the atoms will spin in all direction. Initial abstract were modeled after quantum gates thus they were called gate model. There, individual ions and photons are trapped to use a q-bit and then they were chained to form a quantum gate. But the problem is q-bit unstable in nature as while operating in the air medium the q-bit can be destroyed.
The q-bit is implemented with Bloch sphere, the basic building block of quantum computer. Google acquires a D-Wave model. It is located at the NASA Ames Research Center, near the Googleplex, Mountain View, California. It is partly owned by both NASA and Google Inc. Scientist Hartmut Neven first persuaded the Google to invest money in this magic box called GOOG. The processing power is 512 q-bit. Although sounds very fast but according to the experts a real superfast quantum computer must have yet to achieve for at least a decade. The D-Wave was founded by a gentleman named Geordie Rose, a person who fell in love with the concept of quantum computing after reading a book named Exploration in Quantum Computing written by NASA scientists. At that time in 1999, he was a doctorate student in British Columbia University. He was an avid fan of physics and artificial intelligence. Then he decided to work on the system and founded D-Wave. In 2003 he met a NASA scientist named Eric Ladizinsky. Eric was superconductor expert. He experimented with super cooled near zero niobium metal loops when magnetic fields ran around in opposite directions. Bingo! It was the first step. He suspected that the loop will acts as entanglement apparatus.
On the other hand as quantum computer will be a threat to mankind upon arrival, already cyber experts have founded a new company. It is called Qbitekk who thinks that quantum computer will be a threat to the public key infrastructure.
Perhaps the most expensive computer that a person (or a millionaire) can afford and add it to his desk is a computer known as quantum computer. This is the most advanced and world’s fastest computer ever created! Well, let me remind you, good things come with good price. D-Wave (code name Orion), a company from Canada, backed by Lockheed Martin, NASA and CIA, is interested in selling a single unit quantum computer to willing individuals at roughly $10 million! Amazed! Just hold on. More facts are coming. It was believed that the coldest place in the universe is 5000 light years away from the earth called Boomerang nebula where the temperature is -458 degree F. But a typical 10 feet long D-Wave Two model quantum compute requires -459.6 degree F for the niobium computer chip.
Albert Einstein first theorized quantum computation. Paul Benioff in 1981 tried to apply quantum theory in a turning machine. Later in 1982 researcher Richard F. first considered that a mechanical system can be developed with the concept of quantum computation in his mind although the concept he showed was an abstract idea. A quantum computer is a specially designed computer that is based on the q-bits and quantum logic gates rather than classical computer made of bits. Bit means binary digit. A binary number is consisted of 1 and 0 thus any number can be represented using any combination of them. For instance, 1 represents presence of voltage and zero represent absence; it is a physical way to understand the current status, true or false actually. But q-bit or quantum bit is a bit that bears a single unit of quantum information. It is a two state quantum mechanical system, called polarization. The polarization can be horizontal or vertical. It can exist in the two positions concurrently. In a classical computer, numbers of three bit length can be put in a register where the limit is only one but a q-bit can put all eight combinations of binary numbers at a time. That is with binary we had only two options but q-bit has yes, no and all maybes. The quantum computer is more complex and powerful than a super computer and designed for processing huge amount of data. Before get in the depth of quantum computing, let’s have a look at the internal mechanism of a classical computer.
A computer is a machine that’s sole purpose is performing computation. According to the standard definition, computation is anything that can be done by a turning machine. A turning machine is an instructional machine that can evaluate any problem and draw a valid conclusion for a finite state automaton. It was first theorized by Alan Turning in 1930s. The postulates forsworn a rough sketch that a turning machine is a device having unlimited length of tapes containing squares where each can be left blank or hold any symbol. By reading these squares a read-write head interprets instructions and executes them. The tape mechanism is replicated in a quantum computer in quantum state. All turning machine have one thing in common, it takes either exponential or polynomial amount of time to solve any problem. Thus a computer designed in classical architecture has only two states, binary zero (off) or one (on). But q-bit represents upward direction or downward direction or a clock wise direction. As the mechanism is special, it takes specially designed algorithms to solve problems in a quantum computer. It is very difficult to develop such a complex algorithm to gain quantum parallelism. An algorithm is a finite set of steps to solve a particular problem. The efficiency of the algorithm is measured by time. The algorithm must not increase no faster than the polynomial size of the input. Such an algorithm is quantum random walk search algorithm. Another famous quantum algorithm is Shor’s algorithm that was first devised on 19 December, 2001 in IBM. It was the first quantum algorithm devised in 1994 by Peter Shor. The algorithm is specially designed for factorization of large prime numbers. Shor algorithm was a killer application. A killer app is an application that requires specially designed hardware to run just like the first calculating software “VisiCalc” developed in 1980s especially for Macintosh pc. It is really very challenging to factorize a large prime number as a classical computer can take hundreds of years to solve it. That’s how RAS encryption algorithm evolved, the most secure encryption method till date. It is believed that, quantum computer can break the encryption in just two seconds. Thus some have disputed that if quantum computer is developed, there will be no security. Although scientists have developed a workable unit to perform quantum computing, an exact mechanism is yet to be achieved, may take years ahead.
Gordon Moor predicted in his famous law that the number of transistors that can be put in a square inch on an integrated circuit would double per 18 months. For more than four decades the law was held true and universal. But recent advancement in IC technology has surpassed the limit thus the requiring size of the transistor would be reduced to the atomic level. This can be easily witnessed by an old model of Pentium computer that contains more than thirty million transistors embedded in it. It is possible to reduce the size but tiny pathway of electronic signals would corrupt the signal. Also a digital computer produces results serially while a quantum computer can process data simultaneously. This is called concurrency. A 30 q-bit quantum computer data processing power can be comparable to a traditional computer processing ten trillion floating-point operations per second. Although a typical desktop computer can carry out gigaflops operation only! However the most advanced quantum computer we have can carry out 16 q-bit, others are still in theory.
Quantum computer is based on two basic concepts of quantum mechanics called superposition and entanglement, both requires a lot of mathematics to understand fully! For a shadowy overview we can assume some points and would like to understand the basics. The computer encodes information in q-bits and these q-bits can represent electron, photon, and ion state or even mimic the processor or memory. They can be represented simultaneously thus a parallelism state is achieved. The q-bits are created in atomic level; no human eye can watch that. But they can be activated and controlled by control devices. Ion traps use optical of magnetic or a combination of both to do that sort of controlling. Other controllers are like superconductor circuits and semiconductors found in common electrical circuits. Optical traps also are also used. Quantum dots controls electrons are made of semiconductors. The superposition theorizes that in quantum state, an electron can take the state of all possible states but when measured only one result is found. Moreover, the entanglement theory says, when applying force on two atoms, one atom can take on the state of another thus when left alone the atoms will spin in all direction. Initial abstract were modeled after quantum gates thus they were called gate model. There, individual ions and photons are trapped to use a q-bit and then they were chained to form a quantum gate. But the problem is q-bit unstable in nature as while operating in the air medium the q-bit can be destroyed.
The q-bit is implemented with Bloch sphere, the basic building block of quantum computer. Google acquires a D-Wave model. It is located at the NASA Ames Research Center, near the Googleplex, Mountain View, California. It is partly owned by both NASA and Google Inc. Scientist Hartmut Neven first persuaded the Google to invest money in this magic box called GOOG. The processing power is 512 q-bit. Although sounds very fast but according to the experts a real superfast quantum computer must have yet to achieve for at least a decade. The D-Wave was founded by a gentleman named Geordie Rose, a person who fell in love with the concept of quantum computing after reading a book named Exploration in Quantum Computing written by NASA scientists. At that time in 1999, he was a doctorate student in British Columbia University. He was an avid fan of physics and artificial intelligence. Then he decided to work on the system and founded D-Wave. In 2003 he met a NASA scientist named Eric Ladizinsky. Eric was superconductor expert. He experimented with super cooled near zero niobium metal loops when magnetic fields ran around in opposite directions. Bingo! It was the first step. He suspected that the loop will acts as entanglement apparatus.
On the other hand as quantum computer will be a threat to mankind upon arrival, already cyber experts have founded a new company. It is called Qbitekk who thinks that quantum computer will be a threat to the public key infrastructure.
