You may (or may not) have heard of the term Quantum Computing but what is it and what will it mean for the digital age?
So traditional computers as most people know work on a simple binary system. Inside your computer or phone or tablet (anything with a traditional computer chip) you have a chunk of transistors that act like switches. Everything you do on a computer relies on chunks of information (called BITS) being set to one of these states (on /off or 0 or 1) and processed by these transistors. So actually a traditional computer operates on very simple principles.
The reason computers are so quick is because they can handle HUGE amounts of data – Most processors are now 64 bit meaning they can address 18,466,744,076,709,551,616 bytes or 18 quintillion (each byte consists of 8 BITS). So whist the options within a traditional computer for processing is simple either on or off we are talking about a monstrous amount being processed at a time.
Interesting Fact – An iPhone 6 can perform calculations 120 million times faster than the computers on NASA’s Apollo 11 spacecraft!
With that in mind you would think we are set for computing power but alas this is not the case. Despite processing power doubling every 2 years (see Moores law) we are still in need of more processing power (Quantum power) for the big ticket items – This is often referred to as BIG DATA so things like better weather forecasting or advanced scientific research (gene sequencing etc) or more poignantly research in viral transmission and vaccination programs.
And given the transistors in traditional computers are already as small as they can be we cannot cram in anymore meaning we have basically hit the limits for traditional ‘super computers’ – This is where the Quantum world makes sense.
Its all about the Quantum Qubits
Quantum computing works differently, the BITS in a quantum computer (called Qubits) work at the tiny Quantum level where strange things can happen, Quantum physics is dealing with really tiny things and the standard rules as set out by Einstein’s theory of relativity are at odds with the Quantum world. As a result these Quantum bits or Qubits/QBITS can be either On or Off or any % between (called superposition).
This QBIT behaviour ultimately means the combinations exponentially increase thus an exponentially more processing power as its not just off or on anymore.
Will my next laptop use Quantum chips?
No probably not – At present Quantum computers apart from being monstrously expensive require very unique environments to operate in specifically temperature. QBITS operate at -273c so unless you happen to have lots of liquid nitrogen lying around you are just not going to get close but scientists are working on methods to make QBITS stable at higher temperature.
Its safe to say that your consumers computers are likely to remain ‘traditional’ for some time to come but with Quantum computer tech being invested into by the likes of Dwave and Google its fair to say that advances in how we interact with the world is set for some big changes in the future.
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