IBM, one of the
world’s leading industries in term of quantum computing, has constructed a new
chip, which can be very useful in deciding the future of quantum computing. It
is a superconducting chip that can revolutionize the ‘world of Quantum
computers’ and can even challenge some theories of quantum physics. The chip is
the first in its generation as it can integrate the basic devices needed to
build a quantum computer, called qubits, into a two dimensional grid.
Circuitry surface of
IBM’s chips are made up of metals, which under extremely low temperature shows
super-conducting properties. The chip operates at only a fraction of a degree
above absolute zero. Scientists believe that the best way to construct a
realistic quantum computer would involve creating grids of hundreds or
thousands of qubits working together.
With previous
experimental results, researchers have been able to operate qubits only when
they were arranged in a line. However, IBM contains the simplest grid possible,
four bits arranged in a two by two array.Unlike Binary digits there is a state
in which the qubits can effectively work as both 0 and 1 in which is known as
superposition state. In this state, the qubits can cut through multifaceted
calculation in ways impossible for conventional hardware. Most of the MNC’s and
the US Government are working on this technology.
There are different
ways to make qubits, but the most conventional ways are those used by IBM and
Google. Quantum bits suffer from a ‘quantum effect’ fact which the bits use to
represent their data. These datas are very prone to interference. There are two types of errors occurring in a
qubit system, first one being the ‘Bit-flip error’, where a bit representing a
0 changes to a 1 or vice-versa. And the second one is known as ‘phase-flip
error’, where a superposition state becomes distorted.
IBM’s new designed
chip is constructed in a way (4 qubits arranged in a square) such that it can
detect both the ‘bit-flip’ and ‘phase-flip’ errors. One pair of bits is used
for checking the errors by the other pair of bits. One bit looks for the
‘bit-flip’ error while the other looks for the ‘phase-flip’ error. This
arrangement of the grid can also overcome the interference problem caused by
putting the four qubits close together. Further researches are going on, in
which the scientists are planning to build a grid of eight qubits arranged in a
two by four rectangle.
I hope this experiment
succeeds as quantum computers could efficiently take shortcuts through much computation
that are difficult for today’s computer. Moreover, quantum computers have
mind-blogging applications, but it is stalled by the frailty of quantum
computers.
/Anuttam/
