Google Claims To Have Cracked Quantum Computing - The Start Of A Computational Revolution?

Google published research this week that, if valid, could be an exciting proof-point on the road to unlocking the power of Quantum Computing.

The Transistor Disrupts Our World

Don't we all remember the invention of the transistor and it's profound impact on our society? Ok, maybe everyone does not appreciate the way this technology accelerated our ability to develop incredible machines. The transistor allowed us to build processors, which was a major breakthrough in allowing machines to perform computational operations.

For a brief overview of the great impact of the transistor, check out this interesting article. Bottom-line: the transistor gave us an electrical "switch" that paved the way for storing data and processing information. This empowered innovators to build incredible technologies that revolutionized society.

The Problem With Our Computational Reliance On Light

Admiral Grace Hopper is famous for many things, having been a pioneer in the field of software engineering.  Admiral Hopper had a habit of carrying around "nanosticks" (pieces of wire 11.8 inches long), which represents the distance light can travel in a nanosecond (1 billionth of a second). She used this learning aid to explain to her superiors why there was a "delay" in satellite communications that could not be overcome, due to the limitation of the speed of light.

On a computer processor, light must travel distances of a similar order of magnitude as the size of the chip with each processor cycle. If a processor runs at 10 GHz (10 billion cycles per second), the light can only travel 1.2 inches during each cycle. To achieve faster clock cycles, the size of a microchip needs to "get smaller" to allow for light to travel far enough (faster clock-speed = faster processing).

This limitation of the "speed of light" encourages us to make chips smaller, so we can improve performance and computing power. However, there is a limitation to how small you can make a circuit components. In theory, you can imagine a single atom serving as a circuit component. In fact, don't imagine - just read this article that explores the development of a single-atom transistor.

Quantum Computing: The Transistor Breakthrough of Today

What if we could push the scale of computing beyond the limits of traditional electric circuits? What if we could perform calculations at the atomic level? These are challenges that push forward research in the field of Quantum Computing, and recently we received an interesting bit of news via a research paper released from Google AI Labs.

Google claims they have proved that Quantum Computing indeed works, and they have data to support that they have successfully proved the concept using a machine bought from NASA in 2013.

This isn't to say we will have quantum-powered consumer devices tomorrow, as there is a long way to go from proof-of-concept to flexible, dynamic computing machines. Despite that, the recent news is still an exciting glimpse into our computational future.

Quantum computing could unlock a new tier of processing power that would revolutionize consumer devices and empower faster innovation in fields like machine learning or biostatistics. Bring on the future!