Powered by fusion reactors?
Quantum computing is almost ready for business, startup says
41–45 of 45 posts
Re: Quantum computing is almost ready for business, startup says
#42They're creating a cloud SaaS platform, yet haven't actually solved the quantum issue, which will be solved in: "My guess is this could happen anytime from six to 36 months". This company has built the easy part first (the web app and database), and now just needs to do the the insanely hard problem at the core of their business which nobody knows is possible to solve. I would probably not invest, is what I'm saying.
This is inaccurate. The first thing this company built was a programmable quantum computer. The second thing they did was build a quantum integrated circuit fabrication facility. 4 or 5 years in they started doing access models with software (“web app”, a term that’s also inaccurate, and DB).
Having a quantum integrated circuit without a way to access it (a cloud platform, in Rigetti’s case), is like having a CPU without a motherboard. How might you expect to program the integrated circuit if it has no infrastructure to allow it to be programmed? This is a key ingredient to quantum advantage, not just the hard science of manufacturing scalable and fault-tolerant integrated circuits, especially since the notion of programming such a circuit is already a woefully nascent field.
Re: Quantum computing is almost ready for business, startup says
#43They're creating a cloud SaaS platform, yet haven't actually solved the quantum issue, which will be solved in: "My guess is this could happen anytime from six to 36 months". This company has built the easy part first (the web app and database), and now just needs to do the the insanely hard problem at the core of their business which nobody knows is possible to solve. I would probably not invest, is what I'm saying.
This is inaccurate. The first thing this company built was a programmable quantum computer. The second thing they did was build a quantum integrated circuit fabrication facility. 4 or 5 years in they started doing access models with software (“web app”, a term that’s also inaccurate, and DB). Having a quantum integrated circuit without a way to access it (a cloud platform, in Rigetti’s case), is like having a CPU wit…
So, what's the "6 - 36 months" piece then, if they already have a workable quantum computer? Answer: they don't, and they don't know if they ever will, otherwise the time to completion would not have a totally arbitrary made up timeline. No?
Re: Quantum computing is almost ready for business, startup says
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is inaccurate. The first thing this company built was a programmable quantum computer. The second thing they did was build a quantum integrated circuit fabrication facility. 4 or 5 years in they started doing access models with software (“web app”, a term that’s also inaccurate, and DB). Having a quantum integrated circuit without a way to access it (a cloud platform, in Rigetti’s case), is like having a CPU wit…
So, what's the "6 - 36 months" piece then, if they already have a workable quantum computer? Answer: they don't, and they don't know if they ever will, otherwise the time to completion would not have a totally arbitrary made up timeline. No?
Quantum computers are analog devices that operate at varying levels of fidelity. Timelines usually refer to how long it takes to get to the next performance node, not how long it takes for a quantum computer to exist at all. They exist, are programmable, and are often accessible to third-parties. Plenty of sources conclude that independently. Many institutions, Rigetti Computing included, have built functional quantum computers.
Re: Quantum computing is almost ready for business, startup says
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Normally I'd agree with you, but some of the breakthroughs in this space over the last 18 month make it clear that it's not an "if," but a "when." They're positioning to be right there when the moment happens.
That's not true at all. Scaling quantum computers is exponentially hard - each bit is twice as hard to keep coherent as the last. And the higher-qubit demos you've heard about have quite low fidelity, meaning they'll need multiple physical qubits to represent each logical qubit. When a problem scales like 2^(2x), you can easily reach an insurmountable barrier. I'm not saying they will, mind you.
"That's not true at all. Scaling quantum computers is exponentially hard - each bit is twice as hard to keep coherent as the last."
I am very interested to know if that is the case. From my perspective, your claim seems like an intuitively obvious application of TANSTAAFL, but there are experts who actually understand quantum physics who think otherwise. Layman's intuition is not to be trusted. Therefore quantum computing remains tantalizingly more plausible to me than, say, cold fusion.