IBM just beat Google to a brand new type of computing
IBM
Although the cloud service is geared mostly toward scientists and students, anyone interested in this strange new computer will be able to give it a try, Jerry Chow, one of the scientists leading the project, tells Business Insider.
A completely different kind of computer
A quantum computer is different than today's digital computer.
A digital computer thinks in two states: zero and one (or off and on). A quantum computer uses "combinations of zeroes and ones" to creates multiple states. It can be a zero, a one, both at the same time, something in between them, or it can be a mysterious zero/one state that you can't really determine, Chow explains.
Jerry Chow/IBM
Because quantum computers think differently, they can quickly solve tasks that regular computers can't do, such as working with billions of variables at the same time, like the interaction between molecules in chemistry.
They are also great for machine-learning tasks. These computers are expected to help find new drugs, new forms of computer security, and become smart computers that can think and reason.
Likewise, programming a quantum computer is completely different.
So the IBM team has created a tutorial to help people learn how to do it. You need high-school algebra skills and a background in programming. (It also helps to read a book on the subject before trying your first "Hello world" app, Chow advises.)
As cold as outer space
Quantum computers are also built differently. This one uses a silicon base, like regular computers, but relies on superconducting metals like niobium and aluminum that must be kept unbelievably cold. The low temperature brings out their special quantum mechanical properties.
IBM
The computer behind this cloud service is a five "quantum bits" (qubits) computer, which is powerful (other quantum computers have been 2 qubits), but not so much smarter than a regular supercomputer.
However, the industry is working its way up to a 50 qubits computer which would be so vastly more powerful than any of today's supercomputers.
No one knows what kinds of problems a computer that fast and smart could solve.
But there's a race between IBM and Google to find out.
The race with Google is on
IBM's work is based on research done at Yale through Professor Robert Schoelkopf (the IBM team is mostly his PhD and post-grad students).
The other prominent US school working on this is UC Santa Barbara under Professor John Martinis Group, which was backed and absorbed by Google in 2014.
"Google is working toward very similar goals," Chow says, and describes the situation as a bit of a turf war.
So score one for IBM for releasing the first cloud service.
Here are some photos of the computer.
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