Quantum Computing as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2015-05-07
·
1,109 words · ~5 min read
0:00
now any theoretical physicist on the street these days will tell you that
0:03
quantum processors are the next logical step in the evolution of mathematical
0:08
computations but for those of us just barely capable of tying our own shoes
0:13
many questions spring to mind what does theoretical physics have to do with
0:17
improving processor performance is this going to end up benefiting me in any way
0:21
that is actually relevant and most importantly will this next leap finally
0:25
be the one that takes me home oh boy
0:29
unlike classical processors which use transistors to create digits of binary
0:33
code called bits which are represented in the familiar form of zeros and ones
0:38
quantum processors use atomic sized structures such as a single freaking
0:42
electron and produce coded units called qubits which have the unique capability
0:47
of being both the values of zero and one simultaneously more on that later to
0:52
accomplish this engineers utilize extreme cold conditions and magnetics to
0:57
manipulate the natural polarity field within the electron and bring it to a
1:01
position where it rests in alignment with the artificially created magnetic
1:05
flow this resting state is referred to as spin down and would be similar to a
1:10
zero value in classical coding when the electron is forcefully going against its
1:15
natural inclination to rest with the flow of the magnetic field or its polar
1:19
south has been spun to the top position that is called spin up which you guessed
1:24
it represents a 1 in traditional binary speak let me use an analogy to clarify
1:29
imagine you're a child back on the playground sitting on the swings if
1:32
you're just sitting there exerting no effort letting gravity hold you in place
1:37
this could be considered the spin down position now let's say you were to
1:40
accomplish the dream of every child around the world and manage to be all
1:44
the way vertical up above the bar spin up would be the point at which you
1:48
reached the apex of your swing and gravity was working its hardest to pull
1:52
you violently back down to the earth now as i mentioned earlier qubits have the
1:56
unique potential to end up representing both a one and a zero in code value
2:01
simultaneously which you could imagine in our previous scenario would be like a
2:05
swinger sitting at the 90 degree mark directly between the ground and the sky
2:10
but just like gravity would make it impossible to stay at that position for
2:13
more than a fraction of a moment the electrons which drive the quantum
2:18
processor have forces preventing them from sitting still as well in fact that
2:22
might be underselling it a little bit because thanks to the quantum mechanical
2:25
phenomenon known as superposition the electron is actually moving in all
2:29
directions simultaneously before the moment it is measured so in order to
2:33
quantify information derived from an electron spinning out like a roided out
2:37
hamster in a ball engineers first determined the basic spin value as
2:41
previously described then they use mathematical probability scales which
2:45
calculate the likeliness the electron was actually spinning in the indicated
2:49
direction and then arrive at two separate numbers for each scenario which
2:53
are the processor's outputs for instance one might receive something like a 70
2:57
probability up and 30 down or as you now
3:00
see both zero and one at once if not at
3:04
least two varying degrees this form of measurement coupled with the electrons
3:08
unique physical properties lead to a quantum processor's two main advantages
3:13
over a classical one so here's the summary part first since the electrons
3:17
are spinning at such an indeterminable rate and direction they are also
3:21
potentially capable of running an indeterminable number of processes at
3:25
remarkable speeds secondly since two measurements are
3:29
needed to quantify each qubit value as opposed to the standard one transistor
3:33
per bit rule the increase in computing power for quantum processors is an
3:38
exponential one in other words when one qubit tells two friends they tell two
3:43
friends and then they tell two friends and i'm gonna run our fingers on my
3:46
hands really fast here until you reach the measly range of 500 qubits where
3:50
you've generated more possible processors than there are particles in
3:53
the known universe but now to the downside or the spin
3:58
downside as it were while quantum processors may have more
4:02
computing power than the whole known universe plus he-man because of all the
4:06
insane amounts of effort it takes to isolate manipulate and quantify
4:11
something like an electron in its spin these computers would likely only see a
4:15
benefit when running intense multi-tiered operations that take
4:20
advantage of the system's ability to run calculations against each other such as
4:24
weather and traffic predictions so for things that run basic algorithms such as
4:28
violent video games or sexually explicit videos or for the really depraved among
4:33
you violent sexually explicit video games classical processors are still the
4:38
king of the roost speaking of the king of the roost we have a sponsor for
4:42
today's episode and they're the king of the roost in my book at least for the
4:45
next 30 seconds cooler master has actually some pretty cool stuff going on
4:49
so aside from their you know high quality cases power supplies and you
4:53
guessed it cooling products which you can find more details about on their website they have a pretty freaking
4:59
serious business modding competition going on right now that anyone is
5:03
welcome to enter so you guys should check out the link in the video description for more details about that
5:08
and if you're not a modder then make sure that you also check back and just
5:12
have a look at some of the crazy things people are going to submit there's a number of different categories including
5:17
modding existing cases and even a scratch build category where people will
5:21
be building their own cases so it's nice to see stuff like community involvement
5:26
from these larger companies whether it's sponsoring something like this fast as
5:29
possible or sponsoring modders to do what they do and making sure they win
5:33
prizes just for doing it thank you guys for doing the thing where you watch this
5:37
video like it if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked leave a comment if your feelings were more complicated
5:41
than that if you have suggestions for future fastest possible episodes just like this one or hopefully different
5:45
because we already did this one and as always don't forget to subscribe