The quantum processor

A new computer processor based on science of quantum mechanics was created at the research institute of the University of Michigan. This will be the starting point for the new generations of processors.

The new chip is not applicable to desktop PCs yet, but the quantum computers will be available as soon as possible. This new technology allows solving complicated tasks using parallel computing, by processing multiple inputs at the same time, in the same devices. The speed is at least doubled compared to the classic processors available.

The chip created at the research labs in Michigan is about 2x2 cm. It works by using an ion confined in a trap while electric fields are applied. Laser light puts a spin on the ion's free electron, enabling it to flip it between the one or zero quantum states.

By design computers store and process information as bits - that is 0's and 1's. Quantum computers are made of quantum bits, or qubits, that are using a superposition of the values 0 and 1 same time. Quantum mechanics allows qubits to become entangled in addition which smears information out among multiple qubits.

Previous schemes for making a quantum computer have sought to harness this process by keeping qubits under strict control - only letting them communicate with each other occasionally.

Instead of keeping them under strict control, they assembled a processor core where qubits are active all the time, continuously and freely talking one with each other. The whole core becomes entangled and the qubits record and manipulate data as a group improving computing.

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