D-Wave Is Still Around - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2017, 05:48:07 am
content: And now they boast real quantum computers. Are they real or stillhttps://www.dwavesys.com

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2017, 09:22:32 pm
content: They received 21 million funding relatively recently:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/startups/d-wave-systems-a-bc-quantum-computing-firm-raises-21-million/article32203708/A few coworkers have gone to work there, and they seem to be constantly hiring but I don't know them that well they didn't go into any detail on what they do.The company is certainly real and so is the technology they are working on. They are not far from where I am right now, about 10 minute walk.The question is if its economically viable/useful. Last time I read their effective processing power is very very low, for cost and power used.Not much info about the environment:https://www.glassdoor.ca/Overview/Working-at-D-Wave-Systems-EI_IE756566.11,25.htm"The company's flagship product, the D-Wave 2000Q, is built around a novel type of superconducting quantum processor. D-Wave 2000Q systems are commercially available on-line by subscription and are installed in the field at customers such as Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Labs, NASA & Google."

author: yada
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 12, 2017, 07:00:20 am
content: I thought they were around doing simple addition, another thing I saw on computerphille was questioning whether quantum computers would even work when you add a non quantum amount of qbits say 100 or so. Or is this another solar road ways where they just need a little bit more venture capital because its just around the corner.Last one I saw looked just like that with a vacuum liquid helium cooled metal plate hanging from the ceiling, but only had 2 qubits and couldn't do anything useful.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2017, 09:49:32 pm
content: The reason quantum computing interests people is the existence of quantum algorithms that can solve problems faster (in the computational complexity sense) than any classical algorithm for the same problem. Shor's and Grover's algorithms are examples, for the problems of prime factor decomposition and binary search. The major application of these algorithms is to break cryptographic codes: Shor's algorithms can recover an RSA or Diffie-Helman private key exponentially faster than any classical computer algorithm, and Grover's algorithm can brute-force a symmetric cipher quadratically faster than a comparable classical algorithm. Recent leaks showed that IBM has teams working on quantum computers for the NSA, which didn't surprise anyone who follows the field.D-Wave machines do not execute quantum algorithms and have no foreseeable application to any problem. They can perform "quantum annealing" operations, which despite the word "quantum", have not been shown to be any more efficient than the best classical algorithms for annealing. So there is no advantage whatsoever to being quantum, it is all snake oil and smoke and mirrors.