Google’s new quantum computer is 100 million times faster than your PC

0 1

By Matthew Griffin Computing 15th December 2015

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Googles D-Wave quantum computer breaks the speed barrier and leaves everything else in its dust.

Google announced a breakthrough in the field of Quantum computing on Wednesday. The company thinks it’s found a quantum algorithm that solves problems 100 million times faster than conventional processes. If confirmed, this discovery could not only lead to iRobot style artificial intelligence but also advance the US space program by light years.

Back in 2013, Google and NASA went halvsies on a $10 million D-Wave X2 computing system which is supposedly the world’s first functional quantum computer – although experts both inside and outside the company have never been able to conclusively prove that the machine actually taps into the quantum realm to produce its calculations. That is, until now.

Google’s announcement Wednesday centers on “quantum annealing“, a technique that determines the global minimum for a given function when presented with a set of potential solutions. In English, it figures out the best, or “most efficient,”way to complete a task when given a set number of options. Scientists have been working on quantum annealers for a while now, though the two primary techniques, “simulated annealing” and “Quantum Monte Carlo” are both just simulated systems running on conventional hardware. The D-Wave system, on the other hand, is hard coded to run the quantum annealing algorithm on its quantum array and it’s that that makes the difference.

The company recently tested the new QA algorithm in a proof of concept trial against a conventional system running the simulated annealing and Monte Carlo methods and the results are more than impressive. As you can see from the graph above, Google’s method beat out the other two easily, solving a function with 1,000 binary variables a 100 million times faster.

That, however you argue it, is game changing.

Google qualified these results as “intriguing and very encouraging” in its announcement but admitted that they still have a long way to go before the technology is ready for the consumer market.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin, described as a "Walking encyclopaedia of the future" by NASA and a futurist polymath, is one of the world's most renowned futurists and strategic foresight experts. A serial entrepreneur Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working across the next 50 years, XPotential University, the world's first free futures and foresight university, and the World Futures Forum which works with the United Nations to solve the worlds greatest challenges. 13 times author of the Codex of the Future series, Matthew is an in demand international keynote, acclaimed university lecturer, and host of the hit Fanatical Futurist podcast.

A rare talent in his past Matthew helped build and run several multi-billion dollar business units for Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, and his ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77+ governments, and many of the world's most respected brands including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Disney, EY, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Pepsi Co, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, and many others. He was also the only futurist invited to talk at the UN COP28 held in Dubai alongside world leaders.

Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.