Everyone is probably familiar with classical computers, which receive inputs from users as keys or words/numbers and this is interpreted by the computer by a compiler which turns the inputs into streams of 1s and 0s, called bits, or binary digits. 1 represents the 'on' state of a current and 0 represents 'off'. Every number and word also has a binary translation. Since the birth of quantum mechanics in physics and its basic principles where particles sometimes behave like waves and sometimes as particles and Schrodinger's wave function equation where a particle has a probability of being found at a number of places but its wave function collapses when it is found has led to the concept of the quantum computer. Quantum computers work not with bits, but with quantum bits, or qubits. These have the values of 1 and 0 simultaneously i.e a superposition of both. Until the qubit is analysed, it has a certain probability of being 1 or 0. Qubytes also contain every number from 1 to 256 all at once whereas classical bits contain only one number. This gives quantum computers to store a exponentially larger amount of information, analyse and solve many errors together, and so on. A mathematician, Deutsch, said that QCs were 10 to the 500th times more powerful than classical PCs. The correct interpretation of quantum mechanics states that there an infinite number of parallel universes where everything which doesn't happen in our universe happens there. If Deutsch is right, QCs could perform these operations in parallel universes. Proof of the above is as follows. Particles, and only certain ones, can be used as qubits, like electrons. There are 10 to the 80th power particles approx, in our universe. This doesn't compare with the computing power of a QC. Hence, they have to store data in parallel universes. Other advancements in computation speed include Shor's algorithm mainly used to factorize large numbers quickly, which has contributed to the field of Cryptography a lot. QCs sound like the stuff of legends, but IBM has already taken the first step in making a quantum computer circuit. Hope they succeed.
Comments
Post a Comment