Scientists Come One Step Further in Creating Quantum Computers
The world of technology has got one step closer to creating quantum computers. Dutch scientists have recently created a 2-qubit (quantum bit) processor running on a silicon chip.
While standard computers work with bits of information that can have only two states, 0 or 1, quantum processors are based on the fact that bits can exist in both states at the same time. As a result, they have tremendous computing power and can do things that no classical computer can do. Quantum computers can be used for solving complex problems and can manage much larger number of calculations at once.
Scientists explain that they are still in the early stages of developing a real quantum processor. Hardware manufacturer IBM has already built a 50-qubit computer, but with superconductive materials that need extreme cooling. Putting a quantum processor on a silicon chip, which is already used in the computer industry, may be the first step toward mass production.
In such quantum processors, electrons can be in many states at once. This is called superposition. In the lab, scientists have managed to keep electrons between both positions at the same time, however, such electrons are not stable and quickly fall apart. By linking these electrons together on a silicon chip qubit hardware manufacturers could produce quantum processors for commercial use.
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Words
- bit = the smallest unit of information that a computer uses
- calculation = when you use numbers to find out something
- classical = here: normal; the ones we have today
- commercial use = here: something that is produced so that people buy it
- complex = very complicated
- electron = very small piece of matter with a negative electrical charge that moves around the central part of an atom
- hardware manufacturer = company that producers computers
- however = but
- lab = laboratory
- link = connect with each other
- manage = work with; succeed in doing something
- mass production = products that are produced in factories in large numbers so they can be sold cheaply
- processor = central part of a computer that deals with commands and the information it is given
- quantum = unit of energy in physics
- qubit= quantum bit = piece of information that can exist in two states at the same time
- scientist = person who is trained in science and works in a lab
- silicon chip = small piece of silicon that has electrical connections and can store information
- stable = steady; something that does not change
- stage = phase, time during which something happens
- superconductive = when electricity can flow through a material very easily, especially at low temperatures
- state = condition that something is in
- tremendous = very big, fast, powerful