IBM Develops Advanced Quantum Computer

N E W   Y O R K, Aug. 15 -- IBM said today it had developed the world’s most advanced quantum computer, a device based on the mysterious quantum physics properties of atoms that allow them to worktogether as a computer’s processor and memory.

International Business Machines Corp. said the computer, which uses five atoms to work as itsprocessor and memory, demonstrates for the first time thepotential of such devices to solve certain problems at a rateremarkably faster than conventional computers. The experimentalmachine is considered the next step toward a new class ofdevices capable of superfast calculations.

“A quantum computer could eventually be used for practicalpurposes such as database searches — for example searching theWeb could be sped up a great deal — but probably not for moremundane tasks such as word processing,” said Isaac Chuang, theIBM researcher who led the team of scientists from IBM,Stanford University and the University of Calgary.

Code-Breaking Machine

A quantum computer could also be used for cryptography, orthe making and breaking of codes. This has drawn the interest ofthe U.S. National Security Administration and the Department ofDefense, which are funding Stanford’s efforts to build thequantum computer.

The current method of creating processors, which are becomingincreasingly smaller and more powerful as described by an axiomknown as Moore’s Law, is expected to reach a barrier sometime inthe next decade or so. This process, lithography, will not allowfor the creation of microchips the size of molecules, promptingresearchers to try to build computers by using genetic strands ordeveloping other tiny technologies.

“Quantum computing begins where Moore’s Law ends — aboutthe year 2020, when circuit features are predicted to be the sizeof atoms and molecules,” said Chuang. “Indeed, the basicelements of quantum computers are atoms and molecules.”