Silicon-Based Quantum Computing Technology Closer to Reality

October 12, 2015

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October 12, 2015 – It is Thanksgiving Day here in Canada and Columbus Day in the United States. We plan to sit down with family and friends this evening for a traditional turkey dinner. For my Canadian subscribers who are also probably Toronto Blue Jay fans, this may prove to be auspicious moment for the country. We’ll know by the end of the day.

But from Down Under comes some exciting news for those of you who have been forever waiting for the quantum computing revolution to spring forth. The promise of a commercial quantum computer has existed for several decades. In Canada, D-Wave, a Vancouver-based company, is the closest so far to delivering quantum technology. Google uses D-Wave technology. Facebook is investing in quantum technology. And Intel just announced a budget of $50 million to be spent on quantum research and development.

The Australian breakthrough as announced in the last week is an engineering feat, the building of a silicon-based quantum logic gate. Produced by an electrical engineering team at University of New South Wales, the logic gate performs calculations in quantum fashion. Instead of being in a either a bit state of “0” or “1” the gate bridges the divide allowing the qubits (quantum bits) to intertwine making fuzzy calculations possible. And by fuzzy we mean states that lie between “0” and “1,” something our current computer technology is incapable of doing.

Now comes the next step, building a prototype silicon quantum processor which the Aussie team believes will require somewhere between $35 and $70 million U.S. in investment. The University is seeking commercial partners for the venture and recently filed a patent for a full-scale quantum computer chip featuring millions of qubits.

So when will you and I have a quantum computer in our homes? Not likely for several decades states the engineers from New South Wales. The first commercial quantum computers will more than likely be purchased by big data companies and will be housed in large data centres where they will provide cloud-based services to users like you and me who will access applications through the Internet.

When you think about it that shouldn’t be a surprise. I already use a Chromebook computer when I am traveling and do all my work in the cloud. Quantum computing may further this trend.