Quantum computing explained

You've probably heard of quantum computing, but like most of us you probably don't have the slightest idea what it is. The famous physicist Niels Bohr once said, "If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them." Radio New Zealand interviewed science writer John Gribbin who did an excellent job explaining what quantum computing is and how it may change computation for ever. Gribbin's new book Computing with Quantum Cats: From Colossus to Qubits looks like a great read.

Quantum computing wins a Nobel

There is no Nobel Prize for computing so it was good to hear last week that Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.”  Joshua Rothman, writing in The New Yorker, puts their groundbreaking research into perspective in an interesting article called, "Quantum Computing Wins a Nobel." If you're not sure what Quantum Computing is and what impact it is expected to have this is a good place to start - be prepared to be confused though quantum physics is baffling. As physicist Niels Bohr said, "If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them."
[Note: the highest award in computer science is the ACM Turing Award, named in honour of Alan Turing]

Vesuvius - a 512 Qubit quantum computer

A Vesuvius 512 Qubit chip

D-Wave, the quantum computing company, has developed a 512 Qubit quantum computer.  Codenamed, Vesuvius, D-Wave say it will be  capable of executing a massive number of computations at once, more than 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, which would take millions of years on a standard desktop PC
    D-Wave claim they will be able to use Vesuvius for:

• Binary classification – Enables the quantum computer to be fed vast amounts of complex input data, including text, images, and videos and label the material.
• Quantum Unsupervised Feature Learning (QUFL) – Enables the computer to learn on its own, as well as create and optimize its own programs to make itself run more efficiently.
• Temporal QUFL – Enables the Computer to predict the future based in information it learns through Binary classification and the QUFL feature.
• Artificial Intelligence via a Quantum Neural Network – Enables the computer to completely reconstruct the human brain’s cognitive processes and teach itself how to make better decisions and better predict the future.

Wired has a good article on quantum cloud computing in a recent issue and quantum computing is explained in the final chapter "Digital Consciousness" of the Universal Machine.