Technology, Boy! Technology! Well, not meant to be racist. An expression. Click that button and you get your food delivered. Swipe right and you meet your date on Tinder. Visit a website and you get your Hit-man. Make some clicks and you buy your own personal jet. And it all happens through a value of some binary numbers in dumb devices which we call computers.
Before, computers were huge and bulky in size occupying enormous space. They used to produce lots of heat. They have had the very low processing power, no high-end graphics like we have today. The storage capacity of the computer used to be measured in Megabytes. Can you imagine it? Compare those days with the modern trends. For an instance, today’s single high definition movie needs storage at the least of a couple of Gigabytes.
Since half a century, the size of computers has been decreasing while exponentially increasing the processing power. Take an example of nanobots that are being built for medicine and industry.
But still, a human’s biology mind is no comparison to the supercomputers ever built.
Supercomputer vs Mind
The supercomputers today have reached the processing capacity like our brain while consuming huge powers, generating more heat and taking enormous space. Previously, cats and dogs were more intelligent on recognizing objects, people and had a better sense of decision making. At least machines have gotten smarter than the pets in the past couple of years through artificial intelligence.
There is a popular paradox on finding the shortest path. Suppose, a salesman has to urgently make a pizza delivery through shortest route available. The salesman is new in town. Going through every available route to know the shortest distance is a huge waste of time. But he has no choice than to try this only option. The regular activity computers like laptops, smartphones and even supercomputers tend to go through this very strategy.
“What if I tell you that you can go every route at once and find the shortest route at the very first step”.
It’s the job of quantum computing to make it happen.
What is exactly Quantum Computing?
Quantum Computing is a computing phenomenon that involves the calculation and signal processing using superposition and entanglement of an electron or similar quantum particle. Like binary bits (0 and 1), a qubit is a unit of quantum information. Qubit is determined by the above-mentioned superposition and entanglement. The design, architecture, and mechanism to process and read qubits are still evolving and getting more advanced. Likewise, a qubit can be zero and one at the same time. Since it can show many values at the same time, it can process many operations at the same time (unlike multi-threading in a classical computer). Hence, it can travel all the routes at the same time and find the shortest path at the very first step.
Real Magics
Hear more, ever heard of jet software in the air planes? Well, It is too complex for the classical computers to process and test those jet software. From the classical computers, I meant today’s sophisticated supercomputers. Or what about exploring planets and stars across the universe. Given enough time and development, the quantum computer has the potential to get the job done more accurately, faster and efficiently. For an instance, suppose you need to find a user’s record from the data servers containing not Terabytes but Zettabytes of data. Let alone leave the idea of searching the same file from the whole goddamn internet. And for the moment, the capacity of the internet is measured in Petabytes.
Quantum computers can be leveraged to research on the diseases while ultimately developing more effective drugs. Is it the issue of GDP optimization? Knock knock, the quantum computer is here. Or is about making the advanced next-generation super computer? Quantum computer is still here. Oh, wait, forgot! It is about researching on artificial intelligence to develop the super-conscious machine. Well, you got the point. See folks, quantum is the new age of computing and it has the potential to do amazing things. There are many countries in around the world who are currently researching on quantum computing. Till date, there have been many companies manufacturing the quantum computers. Some popular companies are D-waves, IBM, NEC Corporation and so on.
D-Wave Quantum Computer.
“A recent research suggests that a single human brain has the capacity and could store one petabyte of data (or a quadrillion bytes)”.
Fun fact, classical computers store data in the form of 0 and 1 (in two forms). And while brain cells use 26 different forms while storing and processing data. And then quantum computers store, process and analyse the data on the basis of the position, the momentum of the electron.
No matter the potential, the means to operate a quantum computer is very complex. And it also has different architecture. Modern classical computers are indeed best for carrying out daily life activity. Quantum computers are huge, bulky and are very expensive. Rest assured, the commercial version of the product is still a long way journey.
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