akzy

D-Wave is able to tackle one problem (and scientifically shown) really quite well so its impressive in that regard but certainly not a quantum computer. One of the interesting things to consider about qubits is also the connectivity. This D-Wave machine does not have all these qubits directly "entangled" (defined below) with each other. They only connect in small groups so it doesn't scale as 2^n (regular scaling for a universal quantum computer). My lab for instance manages to trap just a small handful and that's pretty par for the course in universal quantum computing. quantum entanglement - This is the method by which two quantum particles (qubits for us) can be intrinsically related i.e. you can't measure one without measuring the other.

Whilst i hate to be that guy, this isn't exactly a quantum computer. We refer to this as a 'quantum annealer'. This type of computer can solve one problem well, but how it maps to other problems is still unknown. Don't get me wrong, it is still really cool and very promising, still lots of unknowns however. A Universal Quantum Computer which instead uses quantum gate operations on qubits in order to perform quantum logic would be the end goal. The main contenders are ion trap quantum computation (which I'm PhDing on so am naturally biased towards) and superconducting qubits, but the maximum research labs have managed to produce is very few (less than 10 qubits). Here's a pretty cool photo of our quantum computer in Sussex, lots of lasers and 1000 times less air than outside the International Space Station. Oh and cold, 60uK (0.00006K) cold. Any questions ask away.

Vessel username ; akzy https://www.vessel.com/videos/G-DUjgUyY https://www.vessel.com/videos/DkWN4qqW1