After artificial intelligence, quantum computing eyes its big breakthrough moment

Sub: Sci

Sec: Awareness in IT and Computers

Context:

The founder of Cambridge-based Riverlane, Steve Brierley, predicts that the Quantum technology will have its “Sputnik” breakthrough within years.
His company produces the world’s first dedicated quantum decoder chip, which detects and corrects the errors currently holding the technology back.

What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum computing is an area of computer science that uses the principles of quantum theory at the atomic and subatomic levels.
It uses subatomic particles, such as electrons or photons.
Classical computers, which include smartphones and laptops, encode information in binary “bits” that can either be 0s or 1s.
In a quantum computer, the basic unit of memory is a quantum bit or qubit.
Quantum bits, or qubits, allow the subatomic particles to exist in more than one state at the same time.
The amount of information that quantum computers can harness increases exponentially when the machine is scaled up, compared with conventional computers.

What is the need for control?

The strangeness of quantum behavior means that the values have to be read many times and processed by complex algorithms, requiring “exquisite control” of the qubits.
The qubits are also highly susceptible to errors generated by noise, and the solution to this problem is the “key to unlocking useful quantum computing”
Tech giants such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon are all investing huge sums in generating qubits, and in trying to reduce errors, either through shielding the hardware or by combining qubits and then using algorithms to detect and correct mistakes.
While today’s quantum computers can only perform around 1,000 operations before being overwhelmed by errors, the quality of the actual components has “got to the point where the physical qubits are good enough