A photonic quantum computer chip did nine thousand years’ worth of labor in 36 microseconds. Now that’s fast. and that I can’t even finish my to-do list in an eight-hour workday.
Researchers at Xanudo in Toronto designed a computer chip that vastly outperformed the fastest computers in solving a sophisticated sampling problem. consistent with the report they published on the website nature, their quantum chip Borealis solved this near-impossible problem in three million months a second. Changing Chips At the forefront of computing technology for many years, silicon-based chips’ reign may soon end, as today’s chip designers are trying to find other materials that offer more options and more amazing abilities than the silicon we all know and love. This new trend has spurred the blokes at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to develop what could be the foundation for multi-role computer chips.
In a recent study, ORNL scientists checked out single crystal complex oxide materials at the very smallest levels. they found that contained in just one piece of this material were multiple tiny regions that each responded to magnetic and electrical stimuli differently.
This is due to a feature called phase separation, which suggests the individual regions within one piece of material can be controlled in multiple ways, almost like multi-component electrical circuits.“Within one piece of material, there are coexisting pockets of various magnetic and/or electronic behaviors,” said Zac Ward, the study’s corresponding author, during a statement. “The incontrovertible fact that it is possible to also move these elements around offers the intriguing opportunity of creating rewritable circuitry in the material.”
One Chip, Many Functions
This development means designers can move away from the “one-chip-fits-all” approach. rather than using chips that can perform only one function, we will create multifunctional chips. It also paves the way for smaller chips since the fabric holds many circuit components at the nanoscale level.
This is but one of the new developments from ORNL that could revolutionize the chip industry. they’re also working on a method to write tiny patterns on metallic ink, a miniature version of the computer circuit boards and chips we have today. Borealis is simply the latest in a collection of highly innovative quantum computer chips in the last decade that has been completing tasks insanely faster than traditional computers and beyond most machines’ capabilities.
How do I relate to quantum computers?
Though this is often a profoundly impressive achievement, you’ll be sitting there thinking, “okay, how does this apply to me?” Well, with quantum computing, we will solve new problems.
Quantum computers are going to be a consumer product down the road. Many scientists and developers try to make them more accessible to the general public. And although we are an extended way from a consumer product, they’ll eventually help the typical person.
How quantum computers help the typical person
For example, quantum computers will significantly improve internet data security. Everything you look for and all your personal information is safer when encrypted. Right now, a quantum computer can reach the strongest encryption. However, if we improve this technology, we’ll eventually be able to create a hack-proof encryption process. which might keep your online information safe.
Again, we are still far away from normalizing quantum computers, but the overall public will benefit when we do. And whether it’s nine thousand years of labor or Google searching for your favorite peach cobbler recipe, the web will be a better place when we do. To turn silicon powder into chips, the material is melted in a furnace at 1,400C and formed into cylindrical ingots. These are then sliced into discs called wafers, like chopping up a cucumber. Finally, several dozen rectangular circuits – the chips themselves – are printed onto each wafer in factories, such as that run by Global Foundries in New York State. From here, chips make their way to every corner of the planet.
“We are a printing press for any [electronic] device that any company would want to make,” says Chris Belfi, a clean-room engineer at Global Foundries. Chips are so tiny that dust particles or hairs can ruin their complex circuitry. To avoid contaminating the microelectronics, the vast factory floor must be sterile. An area the size of six football fields is kept thousands of times cleaner than an operating theatre and lit by a dim yellow light to prevent ultraviolet radiation from damaging some of the chemicals used in the production process. Lab workers and factory technicians conduct their business in an eerie glow, clad head to toe in white containment suits complete with masks and goggles.
Inside the clean room, most operations are carried out automatically by vacuum-sealed robots, with parts whizzing between them on ceiling-mounted monorails. Depending on the design, each chip might require anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 steps to produce it.
