Ahaha, That's hot - Quantum computing saves hundreds of thousands by being hotter

[rcmaehl]

Source:
Phys.org

IEEE Spectrum

UNSW Whitepaper (paywall, media source)

 

Summary:
The cost of quantum computing is now potentially only a few thousand USD compared to a few million USD thanks to "hot" qubits.

 

Media:

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

Two research groups say they’ve independently built quantum devices that can operate at temperatures above 1 Kelvin, 15 times hotter than rival technologies. The ability to work at higher temperatures is key to scaling up to the many qubits...required for future commercial-grade quantum computers. A team...from the University of New South Wales in Australia performed a single-qubit operation on a quantum processor at 1.5 Kelvin. Separately, a team of Delft University of Technology performed a two-qubit operation at 1.1 Kelvin. Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware at Intel, is a co-author on the Delft paper. Both groups published descriptions of their devices today in Nature. HongWen Jiang, a physicist at UCLA....described the research as “a technological breakthrough for semiconductor based quantum computing.”  In today’s quantum computers, qubits must be kept inside large dilution refrigerators at temperatures hovering just above absolute zero. Electronics required to manipulate and read the qubits produce too much heat and so remain outside of the fridge. At the higher temperatures..., control electronics could be placed right next to the qubits on the same chip. That should reduce the costs of building quantum systems...the potential difference as going from a few million US dollars to a few thousand. The devices...compute using silicon spin qubits. These qubits are particularly appealing to semiconductor makers such as Intel because devices based on them could be produced using modern semiconductor manufacturing techniques. One key to computing with these qubits was to find a way to manipulate them and read out the results at higher temperatures than conventional quantum methods would allow. To achieve this, both teams employed a technique called Pauli spin blockade. “The fact that we’re seeing these types of advances means the field is progressing really well and that people are thinking of the right problems.” Intel is also attacking the temperature problem from another angle with its recent debut of a cryogenic chip called Horse Ridge that moves some control electronics inside of a dilution fridge and closer to the qubits. 

My Thoughts:
The cold never bothered me anyway but it's a good thing we're making great strides in quantum computing. If all goes well basic quantum computers could be in the hands of prosumers within the next decade or so. I'll definitely be interested in watching the LTT crew build their own.

[Bombastinator]

This happened with super conductors too.  They used to be wildly expensive because they had to be cooled with liquid hydrogen Then “warmer” ones were discovered that only needed liquid nitrogen.  Then all of a sudden people could buy them.

[Froody129]

1,1 Kelvin. We're cooking now boys!

[straight_stewie]

3 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

The cold never bothered me anyway but it's a good thing we're making great strides in quantum computing.

I'd hardly call moving from almost 0^oK to 1^oK a "great stride". It still requires cryogenic cooling.

 

3 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

If all goes well basic quantum computers could be in the hands of prosumers within the next decade or so.

That's what they've been saying since the mid 1980's.

In reality, we need a room temperature superconductor before consumer quantum computers become a reality. Room temperature superconductor as in "can operate at 80^oF" not as in "operates above 32^oF"

[Pickles von Brine]

35 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I'd hardly call moving from almost 0^oK to 1^oK a "great stride". It still requires cryogenic cooling.

 

That's what they've been saying since the mid 1980's.

In reality, we need a room temperature superconductor before consumer quantum computers become a reality. Room temperature superconductor as in "can operate at 80^oF" not as in "operates above 32^oF"

You will never see quantum computers running at room temp. There is too much "noise" from all the vibration of the atoms around it. A bunch of other oddities as well. The key to quantum computer cooling is to use the cooling to reduce the "noise". It also limits to amount of vibration in your quibits as well. Otherwise, there is too much energy in the system for it to work right. Cooling to 1K is a lot easier than cooling to a few hundredths K.  Still expensive, still hard and still cryogenic, but that is what you have to deal with. The fact they can account for the extra noise and whatnot is impressive. 

[Bombastinator]

56 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

1,1 Kelvin. We're cooking now boys!

Oooh.  Dats cold!

 

did they manage to move up a coolant type?

[straight_stewie]

51 minutes ago, Pickles - Lord of the Jar said:

Still expensive, still hard and still cryogenic, but that is what you have to deal with.

Like I said: As long as quantum computers require cryogenic cooling, we will not see consumer variants. It's too complicated, expensive, and even dangerous if you aren't trained to properly handle cryogenic fluids.

Whatever the reasons we are using cryogenic cooling now are do not change that.

[Bombastinator]

“Cryogenic”. Is vague.  Iced water chillers and liquid hydrogen are both technically “cryogenic”.  There’s dry ice, then liquid nitrogen, and it goes down from there.  As numbers get lower the types of coolant change and get radically more difficult to deal with.  If they get a liquid nitrogen system working it might begin to enter the consumer space.  1.1 kelvin is nowhere near liquid nitrogen though.  I don’t know what coolant medium is used for that.

[williamcll]

Would it be possible to cool conventional CPUs with QPU cooling fridges?

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, williamcll said:

Would it be possible to cool conventional CPUs with QPU cooling fridges?

Use a couple million dollars of equipment to cool a couple hundred dollar chip?

[Froody129]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Use a couple million dollars of equipment to cool a couple hundred dollar chip?

That is exactly why it's a fantastic idea

[straight_stewie]

4 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

 Iced water chillers and liquid hydrogen are both technically “cryogenic”

Ice water is not. A cryogenic fluid is defined as "a liquid with a normal boiling point below -130^oF. "Ice water" has a boiling point of 32^oF.

 

Liquid hydrogen is. It has a normal boiling point of -423^oF. Liquid hydrogen is also pretty dangerous if the handler is untrained. Hence why I said: We will not see consumer oriented quantum computers until they can function at ambient air temperatures. I mean it's just that simple. If cryogenic cooling was a viable option for widespread consumer use, then that's what everyone would be using. It wouldn't be relegated to the realm of only the most hardcore overclockers.

[Beskamir]

12 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

I'd hardly call moving from almost 0^oK to 1^oK a "great stride". It still requires cryogenic cooling.

I'd say that over 100% increase in temperature is a large improvement. That's a far greater proportional increase than 245k to 305k and the latter encompasses the entirety of human habitable/preferred temperatures.

[Bombastinator]

7 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

Ice water is not. A cryogenic fluid is defined as "a liquid with a normal boiling point below -130^oF. "Ice water" has a boiling point of 32^oF.

 

Liquid hydrogen is. It has a normal boiling point of -423^oF. Liquid hydrogen is also pretty dangerous if the handler is untrained. Hence why I said: We will not see consumer oriented quantum computers until they can function at ambient air temperatures. I mean it's just that simple. If cryogenic cooling was a viable option for widespread consumer use, then that's what everyone would be using. It wouldn't be relegated to the realm of only the most hardcore overclockers.

I notice you skipped over liquid nitrogen.  Dry ice too.  I don’t know what dry ice’s sublimation temperature is.  It’s probably well over -130f though. Dry ice is a lot warmer than liquid nitrogen.  Liquid nitrogen may be over -130f too.  

So much hay being made over an observation about super conducting magnets.  there was a time when super conductors only worked at near zero kelvin.  A lot of research over many years got done though. 
 

Dry ice and liquid nitrogen are the only two really cold things generally available to the public.  Liquid hydrogen is pretty dangerous even if the worker is trained.  It’s hydrogen.  It goes boom.
 

This ambient air claim sounds like more or less total crap.  You can buy liquid nitrogen at any local gas supplier.  Along with various welding shield gasses like argon.   My local is triple a ice.  It’s about 12 blocks away.  I buy shield gas there for my welder.  Or did before my welder got stolen.  I don’t know if they sell liquid hydrogen or not.  There are hydrogen oxygen torches.  They’re used in jewelry.  It’s cheaper to electrolyze water to get both the hydrogen and oxygen though, so I doubt it.  They probably could but it’s a business and is about economics.  From the sound of the requirements of using the cold as a vibration insulator though it’s likely never going to get to even that stage.  The same thing was said of super conductors though.  Lots of time lots of researchers and whatcha know, you can buy super conducting magnets off Ali baba drop them in a thermos of liquid nitrogen and they work.  Things aren’t even regular magnetic till you cool em though.  They have to be very specially made out of very specific materials in very specific layers.  At one point some years ago “high temperature” super conducting  magnets had extremely thin layers of gold and a couple other odd metals in them.   I don’t know what they use now.  They got better.  It took something like 30 years to get that far though. You still can’t do room temperature superconductors.  Superconducting stuff is only just starting to be used in very specific industrial stuff.  And of course high school science stuff which is where tha Ali baba thing mostly fits. 

[straight_stewie]

17 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I notice you skipped over liquid nitrogen.  

I did not. When I mentioned "relegated to the realm of only the most hardcore overclockers" I was specifically referring to LN2.

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I did not. When I mentioned "relegated to the realm of only the most hardcore overclockers" I was specifically referring to LN2.

 

4 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I did not. When I mentioned "relegated to the realm of only the most hardcore overclockers" I was specifically referring to LN2.

 

4 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I did not. When I mentioned "relegated to the realm of only the most hardcore overclockers" I was specifically referring to LN2.

We both seem to have modified our replies.  

[Dylanc1500]

@Bombastinator Just a heads up for you or anyone else that happens to come along. You probably know this already, at which point just ignore me lol. I have listed different units for those that use the international units, the bald eagle units or the sciencey units. All are at a pressure of one atmosphere.

Carbon Dioxide sublimates at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) or 194.65 K

Oxygen boils at −182.96 °C (−297.33 °F) 90.19 K, hopefully no one uses liquid oxygen to cool a computer. The fireworks would be fantastic though...

Nitrogen boils at −195.79 °C (-320 °F) or 77 K

Hydrogen boils at −252.87 °C (−423.17 °F) or 20.28 K

Helium-4 has a boiling temp of −269 °C (−452.2 °F) 4.2 K

[CarlBar]

On 4/18/2020 at 10:15 AM, Dylanc1500 said:

Oxygen boils at −182.96 °C (−297.33 °F) 90.19 K, hopefully no one uses liquid oxygen to cool a computer. The fireworks would be fantastic though...

 

 

Arguably the Hydrogen is as or possibly more dangerous. Hydrogen is such a small atom that it tends to leech into anything it's stored in or run through degrading its strength over time, not to mention it's one hellish flammability risk and forms both flammable and explosive mixtures across a huge range of concentrations, never mind how easy it is to set off.

 

I still remember hearing about a proposal for a hydrogen powered car that would use some kind of magnesium substrate to compactly store large volumes of Hydrogen gas. Just about the most insane combo, (for a car), i can think of.