Comments on: D-Wave quantum computer solves protein folding problem

By: pete r.

pete r. — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:37:19 +0000

see Lord Penguin’s comment above. it’s right on. also note the limitations cited in the article. they will be (already have been) further engineered and minimized. also the extra qubits will be significant.

By: terry fraser

terry fraser — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 19:20:15 +0000

The optic switch will give give coherence to the quantum world(fastest optic laser 10x15power -when light is at 10x33power.)By transmiting quantum particles instead of information become more important.We need to harness light and its capcity not its speed.So if you take an optic cable and cover the lense in graphene and oil and ionize it in freon(frack it)then put it in a furnace to cohere it then this will allow to trans mit electrons at the speed of light through a visual optical cable reiterating back to electrons(magnetic feild)so the standard processor can work.The ionze work in lenses at the speed of light while electrons work in wires.This process will allow for new micro chips to be built and transport RNA through an optic line from a potatoe through a computer back to optic line. TERRY FRASER 13 SYDNEY DR SW CALGARY ALBERTA (asking for 10% of this process)

By: wiffel

wiffel — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:07:13 +0000

That is not exactly correct.
If you read the article, they clearly mention that the problem they investigated is easily computable on a desktop PC. The problem has only has 40 possible states. You wouldn’t even notice the computation time of that on your cell phone. It would be calculated in a split second.

The point they make is a more theoretical one. They solve the problem in a way that the quantum computer can not “know” about these 40 possible states, which would mean that – at least theoretically – it would have to check all posible combinations. Solving it that way on a classical computer could indeed take the rest of your live to calculate :-)

That’s kind of the idea of using quantum compouters: beeing able to check all posible solutions (and non-solutions) very fast. But the actual problem solved in this case can easilly be solved – and very fast – by ordinary computers.

By: eldras

eldras — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:32:06 +0000

Yes this D wave announcement is encouraging. Ibm don’t expect delivery of a useful error compensation Quantum Computer before 2022 (and that’s their guess) but there seems still a long way to do. the impact on medicine and biology will be enormous if they’re successful.
Other inventions not evident yet will surely emerge and converge.

By: A4i

A4i — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:09:15 +0000

To my understanding 128 qubit CPU should be extremely powerful. Still this is enormous achievement . Somebody should move the industry forward . Otherwise it will stay at the current level for quite a long time , just to repay interest money and made some profit for shareholders. It is something like Kodak and digital camera. I still remember AMD Athlon 64 time . Back then Intel Itanium price was $10 000 for module. That module was like Slot 1 , with DDR RAM for L3 catche and It’s performance was pathetic compared to other Xeon processors. Intel said that people should use it only in database servers and 64bit computing is at least 10 years away from 2003. Well , that was the plan and only a team of 20 people in AMD R&D department were not acting according it. So that team succeeded to launch Hammer CPU family and to demolish Intel monopoly in server business. Looking forward to see similar development in quantum computing.

By: Bri

Bri — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:56:38 +0000

If by conventional computer you mean a desk top PC, don’t bother, you won’t live long enough for it to solve the first protien fold. I think that’s a fair assessment. Maybe just quite a few years in the future?

By: Lord Penguin

Lord Penguin — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:33:45 +0000

If it (or another quantum computer) could solve certain problems much faster than conventional computers, even with a success rate as low as 1/100, it would still be useful because (for the most part) conventional computers can check solutions extremely quickly.

By: John

John — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:38:14 +0000

Good job! As a Coursera quantum computing student I am absolutely thrilled.

By: Vin

Vin — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:49:35 +0000

I don’t understand the last paragraph: is it saying their Quantum computer only go the right answer 13 times out of 10000? That doesn’t seem that impressive?

By: Tom Moriarty

Tom Moriarty — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:30:46 +0000

Is there any comparison on the time reuired by the DWave versus the conventional computer?

By: MrFriendly

MrFriendly — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:52:07 +0000

Score another success for D-Wave. Good for them.
It’s getting pretty obvious that the rumors that they were running a scam are false.

They’re tackling an enormous engineering challenge, and I applaud them for their resilience.