Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

newsroom.ibm.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 325 posts

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#271

Post by gaze »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #33

Quantum Computers sitting in their cryogenic chambers are such works of art, stacks of giant brass plates and hundreds of heat pipes (or coolant pipes? liquid helium I suppose) twisted and coiling throughout the structure hanging like some steampunk chandelier (why do they hang from above anyway?) EDIT: changed to a few direct links to pics: [0][1][2] The esoteric design reminds me of the Connection Machine blog post…

So the chandelier looking thing is a dilution fridge and is just used to make the processor cold. The processor is usually pretty small, not that different from your CPU. That part is indeed iterated on but the fridges aren’t changed much. The wiring is sometimes switched out, but the fridges get used forever. I’m using one now that’s maybe 30 years old. The dilution units are very hard to make, and there’s a very small academic family to which everyone who can make one traces back to.

They mostly hang like that since most dil units are designed so the coldest part is usually the lowest, and they’re generally orientation sensitive. You want easy access to the bottom part, so you just put the plates in descending order of temperature and you hang the thing from the ceiling.

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#272

Post by samus »

wyre wrote: post #263
mhh__ wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ARM based processors Compared to most of the other things listed, this is more of a nerd-aestheticism thing rather than something which is hugely important technologically.

But haven’t ARM based processors put already computers in billions of peoples hands that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access otherwise? I could argue that is hugely important.

ARM is merely a commercially successful microarchitecture that turned out to be good at being optimized for mobile application.

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#273

Post by thomasjudge »

zackbloom wrote: post #53
jazzyjackson wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Is my assumption of liquid helium running somewhere correct? I figure that's the only way to reach the temperatures required (single digit kelvins, no?)

It's much colder than that, single-digit millikelvin. They use He-3/4 dilution refrigerators [1]. Getting things cold and electromagnetically-quiet enough that the quantum state doesn't collapse is a big challenge in the field. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator

And if you need colder than 2mk, nuclear demagnetization:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_refrigeration#Nuclear...

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#274

Post by samus »

m0zg wrote: post #246
RivieraKid wrote: post #86

Tangential question, what are the areas of technology where we can expect to see substantial progress or breakthroughs within 2030, i.e. what are the most exciting areas to follow and look forward to? Here's my list: - Nuclear fusion (Helion, ZAP, TAE, Tokamak Energy, CFS, Wendelstein). - Self-driving cars. - New types of nuclear fission reactors. - Spaceflight (SpaceX Starship). - Supersonic airplanes (Boom). - Soli…

Half of these are on their way into "valley of disillusionment" before they become generally useful, though perhaps not as grandiose as originally promised. And longevity research is not even a real need - we already live too long as it is, from the evolutionary and economic standpoint. I'd much rather someone came up with a way to cheaply and painlessly end one's life once quality of life begins to deteriorate due t…

The How is not the issue. A combination of various drugs or an opiate overdose should do the trick. It's already legal in Switzerland, Canada, and Belgium.

Voluntary euthanasia is ultimately challenging because of similar legal issues as with the death penalty - it cannot be undone, and there are forces in society that can lead individuals to use it for other reasons than just being over and done with suffering through old age.

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#275

Post by dane-pgp »

javajosh wrote: post #229
RivieraKid wrote: post #86

Tangential question, what are the areas of technology where we can expect to see substantial progress or breakthroughs within 2030, i.e. what are the most exciting areas to follow and look forward to? Here's my list: - Nuclear fusion (Helion, ZAP, TAE, Tokamak Energy, CFS, Wendelstein). - Self-driving cars. - New types of nuclear fission reactors. - Spaceflight (SpaceX Starship). - Supersonic airplanes (Boom). - Soli…

Don't forget carbon sequestration and geoengineering. I think longevity research is a path to stagnation, and ultimately counter-productive, and should cease. If science advances one funeral at a time, then longevity is counterproductive for all other progress.

So you have chosen death.

There are reasons to worry about the ethics of longevity research (especially if the benefits of it are not justly shared), but I don't think you can justify withholding life-improving medical treatment from people just because you want to help science by letting people die early.

That sort of thinking is how we get Logan's Run.

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#276

Post by javajosh »

dane-pgp wrote: post #275
javajosh wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget carbon sequestration and geoengineering. I think longevity research is a path to stagnation, and ultimately counter-productive, and should cease. If science advances one funeral at a time, then longevity is counterproductive for all other progress.

So you have chosen death. There are reasons to worry about the ethics of longevity research (especially if the benefits of it are not justly shared), but I don't think you can justify withholding life-improving medical treatment from people just because you want to help science by letting people die early. That sort of thinking is how we get Logan's Run.

It's dishonest to characterize what I'm saying as "choosing death", as if I've got a nihilistic urge to nuke the planet. Death, birth, and renewal is part of the entire biosphere which has been existed for billions of years. The cells that defy death are called "cancer". The messiness with which humans come into being and then pass away again is NOT something to be engineered away - it is something to experience and learn to appreciate.

The thing that lives on, that can be effectively immortal (if we choose to protect it) is the biosphere in which we're embedded and, to a lesser extent, the nest of symbols humans have fashioned for themselves over the last few millenia. It is fascinating to imagine what it would be like to live through human history; however it is terrifying to imagine what the "great men" of history would have done or become if not cut down by time. The inevitability of death has surely stopped some great things from being done, but I'm equally sure it has stopped even worse things from being done - imagine human history if the Pharoahs of Egypt had had access to immortality! It's too horrible to imagine.

BTW the Logan's Run system was purely about maintaining homeostasis given limited resources, NOT about maintaining (or even enhancing) dynamism in the population by decreasing average life-span. In other words, unrelated.

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#277

Post by samus »

xondono wrote: post #118
snarkypixel wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The best way to predict the future is to create it

Yeah, but trying to build things too early makes them meaningless. Babbage designed a computer that had essentially no impact, because it could not be built, and by the time the tech was around we had better ways to build computers. As a global effort, it may be wiser to shift focus to other things more achievable, and try QC again in 2100 (IDK, just some random future time).

Babbage's technology was feasible in principle. The differential engine was successfully built as a museum project, though it was complicated by Babbage not leaving behind detailed plans[0]. It can be argued that gear-based computational engines face inherent technical challenges that electrical designs don't. But simpler, far more successful versions of mechanical calculators have been developed as well[1].

There is a far greater resolve to invest in Quantum Computing technology compared to Babbage's technology in the 19th century. It remains to be seen whether ultimately something useful emerges. But we might discover other things along the way, just as the Manhattan project and the Race to the Moon were the pathway to develop several other useful technologies.

[0]: https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/modernsequel/

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#278

Post by mhh__ »

wyre wrote: post #263
mhh__ wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ARM based processors Compared to most of the other things listed, this is more of a nerd-aestheticism thing rather than something which is hugely important technologically.

But haven’t ARM based processors put already computers in billions of peoples hands that otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access otherwise? I could argue that is hugely important.

The ARM revolution has already happened, in this case I viewed the mention to be more of a wishlist for the types of computers the global well-off buy.

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#279

Post by samus »

Maursault wrote: post #80
krastanov wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it really though? Every secure system design pretty much assumes that the cryptographic standard will be broken in a few decades. Is there really any secret today that would be problematic if made public 30 years in the future? And that would not have been made public by some other method anyway?

> Is there really any secret today that would be problematic if made public 30 years in the future? Sure. For one, that all the major earthquakes in the last 30 years, resulting tsunamis, destruction and loss of life, were manmade and intentionally caused by, say, Nabisco. Also, it would be a little shocking to the public if it were revealed there are no humans left, only alien-hybrids.

Both of these facts would be quite irrelevant when ultimately discovered. It is hard to make people care about anything that happened 30 years ago that did not affect them personally, and in the latter case the alien-hybrids would have to just... accept the fact.

Re: IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor

#280

Post by adolph »

skhr0680 wrote: post #143
danbolt wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very excited to configure DNS blocking for the quantum dust particles trying to serve me advertisements in my home.

At least analytics won’t be able to tell if you looked at the ad or not

“Why do you look at the speck of quantum dust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the GPU in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a GPU in your own eye?"

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207:3-5...

Post reply on HN