100 trillion times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer, What is it?
Chinese scientists claim to have developed a quantum computer that can conduct certain computations nearly 100 trillion times faster than the most advanced supercomputer in the world. Quantum computers are devices that store data and carry out computations using the properties of quantum physics. While a classical computer uses bits that can be either 0 or 1 to perform calculations, a quantum computer uses qubits that can exist in several states at the same time. The key to the power of a quantum computer lies in its capacity to create and manipulate quantum bits, or qubits.
“Where current computers would require tens of billions of years to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems, a quantum computer would be able to find a solution in only minutes, hours, or days,” according to Microsoft.
Okay, so there is another fundamental unit of data called Qubit which is behind this way too high speed. But, how?
In normal computers, bits (0 or 1) are the smallest unit of information on the other hand quantum computers use qubits which can also be set to one of the two values. But in the quantum world, the qubit doesn’t have to be just one of those, it can be in any proportions of both states at once. This is what we term as superposition.
So, can a quantum system be in multiple states at the same time?
Yes, but as soon as we test its value, it has to decide to be in either state. More precisely we can say that as long as it’s unobserved, the qubit is in a superposition of probabilities for 0 and 1, and we can’t predict which it’ll be. But the instant we measure it, it collapses into one of the definite states.
Another revolutionary property of qubits is Entanglement, an extremely strong correlation that exists between quantum particles, that makes each of the qubits react to a change in the other’s state instantaneously, no matter how far they are apart. Albert Einstein coined this quantum entanglement as “spooky action at a distance.” To sum up, it is because of superposition and entanglement that a quantum computer can simultaneously process a large number of calculations, thereby explaining the remarkable speed it can achieve.
Apart from the great computation speed which can be achieved by using quantum computers, there are numerous other invigorating things we can accomplish with them. Quantum uncertainty could be used to generate private keys to encrypt messages sent from one place to another so that hackers could not secretly copy the key perfectly, because of this uncertainty. Another exciting application is the teleportation of information from one site to another without the information being physically transmitted. Yes, teleportation, one of the most fascinating sci-fi ideas, can be possible and the particular reason for this is the fluid identities of quantum particles can get entangled across space and time, and due to this when we change something about a particle it can influence the other.
It all sounds great, right? So, why haven’t we replaced our computers with quantum ones yet? Well, there are a lot of challenges which we need to deal with to build and use a practical quantum computer. Firstly, it is important to build and store the qubits at a temperature close to absolute zero. The computers have to be insulated from atmospheric pressure and Earth’s magnetic field. A practical quantum computer could also endanger cybersecurity as it can decrypt the commonly used encryptions in just a few seconds. Despite all of these demanding shortcomings, quantum computing is envisioned as a superpower that could revolutionize the world and unlock enormous possibilities outside of our experiences. It’s gonna be spectacular to watch quantum computing becoming a way to probe the mysteries of nature.
