What is Quantum Computing?
Computing that happens by using qubits or quantum bits is called Quantum computing. Quantum bits are nothing but sub-atomic particles which is having multiple states at the same time. It will assemble a sequence of instruction sets and be executed them in the quantum computer with the help of quantum algorithms.
What is quantum bit and why it is termed quantum computing? Does it relate to physics?
Absolutely that is correct. It is because computing is based on the principles of quantum physics which are superposition and entanglement. This is why it is termed quantum bits and quantum computing. Sounds interesting? Interestingly to know more about these, first, let us see what is Superposition. We all know how data in digital computers are encoded. It is in the form of bits either 0 or 1. But, in a quantum bit data is encoded in any of these (0,1) or both and that position is called a superposition.
Next is the entanglement. When a qubit is correlated with another qubit, is said to be entangled which creates a dependency between two qubits that the state of one depends on the state of the other.
Alright! Do quantum computers exist in the market? How does it help in processing?
The answer is No. It is not available in the market currently as it is in the early stages. Big players in the market like IBM, Microsoft, and Google have started building their own quantum computers and are said to be under the research stage. However, IBM claims to have built a 20-qubit Quantum computer.
Just 50 qubits? The number seems too small. How big is that?
Achieving 50 qubits in practical, which is in the prototype stage is humongous in that it is bigger than the total number of atoms in the whole universe.
What is the need for quantum computing?
Though digital computers occupy the entire world and had become a driving force already, there are certain grey areas/problems where these classical computers will never be able to solve problems. One fine example of it is to model a caffeine molecule in a cup of coffee. This is complex enough that no computer that exists or could be built would be capable of modeling caffeine and fully understanding its detailed structure and properties. This is the type of challenge quantum has the potential to tackle.
Because of the ability to solve such problems, the chemical industry has already started investing in research to build a quantum computer.
What advantages does it offer?
- Storage capacity will be increased drastically.
- Processing speed will exceed the speed of light theoretically.
- Offers much more security than what digital computers managed to achieve
- A true parallel processing is achieved, then what digital computers do with parallel processors claiming it as parallel computing.
- With this computing power, though every industry will benefit from it, quickies to adopt will be the chemical industry, Healthcare, AI and Financial sectors.
No disadvantages?
- Cannot say No as it has it own challenges in the form of coherence. Coherence is nothing but the lifetime of superposition of qubits. Existing researchers managed to achieve 90 microseconds last year from 47 microseconds couple of years back. This is considered as a giant leap and sounds progressive.
Can I try Quantum Programming in my Home PC?
Yes, you can. This is from Microsoft Download & Install community version of Visual Studio 2017. Then install quantum development Kit. This helps you have project templates related to quantum computing.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum/quantum-installconfig?view=qsharp-preview&tabs=tabid-vs2017
What are all the algorithms available in quantum computing?
Following are some of the algorithms.
- Shor’s Algorithm for factoring
- Grover’s algorithm for searching an unstructured database or an unordered list.
- Simon’s algorithm for solving black box problem exponentially faster than digital computing.
- Element distinctness algorithm by Andris Ambainis & Yaoyun Shi
Where quantum computing will take a lead over the digital computer?
In general, it would completely replace the existence of classical computers owing to some of the following reasons.
- Computational speed
- Security
- Storage
Is it worth investing our time and effort in quantum computing?
Honestly, we techies are finding it interesting and happy to be part of this revolutionizing computing concept irrespective of return on investment. So, it is better for non-passionate techies to stay away at this point of time.
How quantum computing will fit in Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning?
This is one area where it is going to witness a huge leap from digital computing purely because of its true parallel processing capacity and ability to respond at an unimaginable speed makes it a perfect fit.
Recent research work confirms that quantum algorithms act as building blocks of machine learning processing using programs.
Can I get few business cases to go for quantum computing instead of digital computing?
This is just a brief intro on the emerging computing concept which would revolutionize how the whole processing is carried out currently. We will discuss some of the use cases in the upcoming post.
Can I try quantum programming in a real quantum computer?
Yes, you should be able to once it is available in the market commercially. But for now, we got to rely on IBM as they provide the environment in the cloud.
https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q/
What are all the supported programming languages of quantum computing?
QCL, Q, qGCL, QMA SM, QFC, QPL, QML, and Q#, etc.,
Who are all the familiar service providers or product owners of quantum computers available in this world?
IBM, Google, and Microsoft.
Image courtesy – www.iflscience.com
