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Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

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Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#41

Post by jessriedel »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #36
ok_craig wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any sources you know of that discuss what kinds of problems can be solved faster with quantum computing? I'm curious about them.

D-Wave's machines are very different from "regular" quantum computers, and the sort of problems they solve faster than conventional computers are travelling salesman problems and those closely related, eg: "how can I lay out this printed circuit board so the traces don't cross and are as short as possible?"

D-wave's device has been used to solve exactly zero problems faster than a classical computer. Whether the current prototype even harnesses an actual quantum speed-up hasn't been shown.

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#42

Post by igravious »

nawitus wrote: post #33
Dewie wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So will we ever see quantum computers as consumer products, or are their uses too specialized for that?

If we will, they will be bundled with a classical CPU, which does most of the work. However, it's more likely that quantum computing will used through the internet.

I think there is a world market for maybe five quantum computers.

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#43

Post by arianvanp »

asparagui wrote: post #39
arianvanp wrote: post #38

So I am in my final year of high school now, and I'm not studying physics next year. The only thing about 'quantum physics' that we had was emission-spectra, and light-interference. Quantum Physics sounds _Really_ interesting though, so I would love if anyone could point me in the right direction with where and how I start learning this stuff. Thanks:D

a) Learn this pair of amazon keywords: "dover physics" and "dover math". b) Buy this book to get going: http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Mechanics-Simple-Matrix-Physic... c) Then buy this one to scare professors: http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Classical-Quantum-Physics-...

thanks! The books aren't even that expensive. Will definitely check them out!

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#44

Post by greenmountin »

Xcelerate wrote: post #6

D-Wave's advancements are very interesting to me for a few reasons. The first is that initially many people suspected D-Wave was a scam, because the most successful research efforts in quantum computing used just a few qubits, and D-Wave claimed a massive improvement (something like 128 or 256). Scott Aaronson ( http://www.scottaaronson.com ) was perhaps the most vocal critic. Over the years, the criticism has soften…

People keep referring to Scott Aaronson like he changed his mind, and it's pretty clear he didn't. He just didn't want to be the Chief Naysayer anymore; he has more important things to do and frankly that shouldn't be his calling card.

I think the only part of "general-purpose quantum computer" D-Wave can claim is the "computer" part. They have not proven that any part of their annealing is "quantum". They have pretty epic lithography/fabrication skills, and are barreling ahead without any regard for coherence. They also have just an insane number of control lines, so there's some innovation there.

But their net worth becomes negative if you count the bad press for quantum computing in having a charlatan claim they have 1024 qubits and are "500,000" times faster at solving Sudoku. Other fields are having this PR problem too, where even careful program reviews are getting brutalized by the PR news cycle (see recent dark-matter experiment: http://profmattstrassler.com/2013/04/03/ams-presents-some-fi... -- forgive the typography)

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#45

Post by sigkill »

CurtMonash wrote: post #25

I stopped reading when the article suggested that millions of calculations, when done on other computers, take months.

If you define one calculation as one instruction that is carried in a single clock cycle, even the stupidly cheap Atmel chips (which power the Arduino) runs at 16MHz, which is 16 million instructions per second.

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#46

Post by hagy »

papaf wrote: post #30
escherba wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an expert on Comp Chem, but you might want to rephrase your question. If the simulation is "chemically accurate", of course it will match the real-world, by definition of "accurate"...

My understanding of these things is that the dynamics of the real world are not easily measurable at this scale. An alternative is to simulate using using packages such as Gromacs: http://www.gromacs.org/About_Gromacs These packages are truly incredible but use relatively crude approximations and are in wide use. It is possible to get a decent paper out that uses a simulation as evidence to support an idea. The aim o…

You bring up an excellent point, papaf. The accuracy of the empirical force fields used in molecular dynamics simulation engines (such as Gromacs) is a hotly debated topic. Even without quantum computing the issue can be addressed with conventional computers that perform quantum mechanical calculations on interacting molecular fragments. The forces calculated from quantum mechanics can then be compared with those calculated from molecular dynamics force fields (as an example see Sherrill et al. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcc.21226/full ). Such studied have shown that current force fields fail to model certain chemical interactions and need improved. Specifically, the underlying functional forms used to model molecular forces need revised.

Currently such investigations are limited in scope by the large computational resources required to perform a single quantum mechanical calculation on a molecular fragment. With quantum computers, tens of thousands of such calculations could be performed and the results could be used to optimize new molecular force fields through multivariate regression.

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#47

Post by LAMike »

jd007 wrote: post #4
LAMike wrote: post #2

"500,000 times faster than its predecessor" How much power do quantum computers use and when will they be affordable enough to put in a smartphone/tablet? And why isn't any other company doing this?

Quantum computers are still in its infancy, and a lot more work is needed before we can even begin talking about practical, effective use. Consumer market readiness is even further away. It's probably not worthwhile for quantum computing chips to enter the consumer market, because (AFAIK) quantum computers are only very good at solving a very specific set of problems (e.g. integer factorization), but their advantages…

Could a quantum computer mine bitcoins?

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#48

Post by TsiCClawOfLight »

igravious wrote: post #42
nawitus wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we will, they will be bundled with a classical CPU, which does most of the work. However, it's more likely that quantum computing will used through the internet.

I think there is a world market for maybe five quantum computers.

while I would agree on a small market, that sounds a lot like what was said about the PC, years ago...

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#49

Post by dhimes »

TsiCClawOfLight wrote: post #48
igravious wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a world market for maybe five quantum computers.

while I would agree on a small market, that sounds a lot like what was said about the PC, years ago...

I believe that was the point of the joke.

Re: Lockheed Martin pays $10M for D-Wave's Quantum Computer

#50

Post by asafira »

alan_cx wrote: post #29
Xcelerate wrote: post #6

D-Wave's advancements are very interesting to me for a few reasons. The first is that initially many people suspected D-Wave was a scam, because the most successful research efforts in quantum computing used just a few qubits, and D-Wave claimed a massive improvement (something like 128 or 256). Scott Aaronson ( http://www.scottaaronson.com ) was perhaps the most vocal critic. Over the years, the criticism has soften…

Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about in this area. So I reserve the right to dumb questions!!! Is it possible that in the future rather than having a sort of general "quantum computer", something like quantum processors will be built for specific computing tasks? Each very different in config and unique, specifically designed and used for one thing and one thing only?

Sure it's possible, and that's probably what will happen with the first few quantum computers. =D
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