Quantum Computing: The Coming Horizon

December 20, 2016

Ever wanted to upgrade your computer? Want that browser to run faster, your game you’re playing in the office while your boss is telling you to write an article to run a little smoother, or to have those calculations for how likely you are to get in trouble to complete just a bit quicker? Well, there is always an upgrade to Random Access Memory or your Central Processing Unit, but there has to be something better, right? In steps Quantum Computing. Welcome back to #TechTuesday, where we discuss what quantum computing is, and why Microsoft thinks we are nearly at that breakthrough.

More Than Just Zeroes and Ones

In computing as it is today, our processors act upon a basic premise. Electrons flow through transistor gates that either are open, as designated by a one, or closed, as designated by a 0 in binary coding. These gates are where the data and the instructional code for all of our processes are stored, and the manner in which these gates are executed is what acts as the binary machine code for programming. We refer to these as “bits”, the smallest amount of data on a machine.

In quantum computing, we instead focus on the electrons, rather than the gates. These electrons are referred to as a qubit, or a quantum bit. Rather than the gates, which are represented by “0” or “1” individually, a qubit represents the zero, the one, and everything in between these values. Now, if you could string together a series of these qubits into a quantum computer, how much data do you think you could store? Almost an immeasurable amount, is the proper answer. Couple that with the realization that one operation in this quantum computer does the same amount of computing as many processes executing in a modern machine, you now have a system that executes and runs processes far faster and more efficient.

While this all sounds like a dream for computing, there are some major blockades in the advancement of quantum computing. These come in the form of the massive heat generation from these exotic matters, or how to make a qubit that is stable enough to not lose its result before being referenced by the machine. This field of study has a legacy for its difficulty, with many researching it attempting any number of methods just to solve the cooling issue alone. But, in steps Microsoft, who think they may have a solution to our problems.

Not A Solution, But A Progression

Most researchers in the field of qubits have attempted a method of controlling the strings called superconducting. While the process is possible, over a length of time, they have never managed to achieve a solution that prevents the qubits from collapsing in matters of microseconds. The more qubits added to the mixture, the more severe this issue becomes. While it is functional, even if barely, it is not a plausible solution. We can take this step in progress and compare it easily to the creation of vacuum tubes for digital computing. It was functional, but not a viable long term solution, nor about to be easily scaled to every day usage.

Microsoft instead has been tempering a solution called “topological qubits”. Instead of relying on the electrons at the center of the qubits, which can be effected by something as simple as the electric field of devices nearby, they rely on the order in which particles such as “Majorana Fermions”, or “Anyons”, change position. Confusing terms, right? Well, the science of it is essentially that under certain magnetic conditions, these Anyons orbit in certain patterns. If you imagine them like they had a tail as they orbit one another, these tails would braid into a sort of pattern. This pattern would be what encodes the computing. While not pretty, it is a far more stable creation. We don’t think it’s a definite solution, nor does even Microsoft, but its definitely the next step in solving the riddle.

What The Future Holds

We don’t know quite when we will see this technology fully realized just yet. But the advances made here by Microsoft are quite telling, putting them on the threshold of teetering into a new era for computing. With that new era comes limitless applications of the technology, too. Once upon a time, we just designed machines with the purpose of targeting a missile better. Now that same technology sits in your pocket every day so you can browse pictures of cats on your lunch break. With quantum computing, our applications can be truly limitless, with advancements potentially being made in chemistry, biology, even human artificial intelligence! What do you think the future holds?

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