How fast is the D-Wave Quantum Processor compared to a silicon based CPU's from Intel?

[Zyre]

I just watched a video from D-Wave about their Quantum Processor. 

 

How fast are these currently? Are they already performing thousands of times faster then a silicon based CPU because it uses superposition; Meaning 0 and 1 exist in the same time?

 

 

 

[AresKrieger]

I just watched a video from D-Wave about their Quantum Processor. 

 

How fast are these currently? Are they already performing thousands of times faster then a silicon based CPU because it uses superposition; Meaning 0 and 1 exist in the same time?

They don't perform that fast for linear tasks (like gaming and such) also there are very few people in the world able to operate a quantum computer, in other words it doesn't matter how fast they are we will never need them as consumers

 

[LazySpeck]

So fast that it would take a normal computer 10,000 years to do what it can do in 1 second . Or something along those lines.

[Guest]

For those very specific tasks, mind blowingly fast. 

[marioo1182]

I've actually been to D-Wave. They are local here in Burnaby British Columbia Canada. Very interesting place. Very creative and intelligent people that work there.

[BrightCandle]

The research from Google suggests 100-100000x faster. But you have to understand they aren't really general purpose computation devices, they solve particular problems probabilistically. You aren't going to be gaming on a quantum computer any time soon. Still quite a few breakthroughs to come before they become usable and we understand the extent of what we can do with them.

[vanished]

For those very specific tasks, mind blowingly fast. 

 

The research from Google suggests 100-100000x faster. But you have to understand they aren't really general purpose computation devices, they solve particular problems probabilistically. You aren't going to be gaming on a quantum computer any time soon. Still quite a few breakthroughs to come before they become usable and we understand the extent of what we can do with them.

 

Exactly.  It's not like a normal computer but 1000000x faster if that's what you are hoping.  They "program" very specific tasks for it to perform and it can solve those mindblowing quickly, but for general computing like rendering, gaming, or anything else, it's no where near ready for the home.  In a way, it's a little like going back to the computers we had in the 40s. They could solve certain tasks much faster than a human, but there were no concepts like an OS, a program, etc. yet.  They had to be configured for one specific task and then they would perform just that.

[XDroidie626]

They don't perform that fast for linear tasks (like gaming and such) also there are very few people in the world able to operate a quantum computer, in other words it doesn't matter how fast they are we will never need them as consumers

 

But I need one now! in my laptop

[Coaxialgamer]

It depends on the task. Quantum computers excel at things like cryptography, where the computer has to "guess" values. In other tasks, it doesn't perform as well

[Godlygamer23]

Quantum computers excel at heavy parallelization. They are not going to be used for consumer tasks as of this time.

[AshleyAshes]

Trying to compare a quantum computer to a standard microprocessor is like comparing your car to the space shuttle.  Your car does about 100kph, the shuttle orbits at about 28 000kph, but even if you had all the money in the world for a space shuttle, it's not going to drive you to work in three seconds.

 

Quantum computers are for an entirely different range of computational situations that normal microprocessors are TERRIBLE at, it's not something that will revolutionize home computing, even for the super rich.

[DKL]

Trying to compare a quantum computer to a standard microprocessor is like comparing your car to the space shuttle.  Your car does about 100kph, the shuttle orbits at about 28 000kph, but even if you had all the money in the world for a space shuttle, it's not going to drive you to work in three seconds.

 

Quantum computers are for an entirely different range of computational situations that normal microprocessors are TERRIBLE at, it's not something that will revolutionize home computing, even for the super rich.

I really like that analogy.

 

I saw a quantum computer featured on the TV show Scorpion. My question is: was it at all realistic?

Also, do some colleges have quantum computers, or was that also just a TV show thing?

[cynicaldriver]

I really like that analogy.

 

I saw a quantum computer featured on the TV show Scorpion. My question is: was it at all realistic?

Also, do some colleges have quantum computers, or was that also just a TV show thing?

Quantum computing is in it's infancy... Like... First minute.

It will be a while before anyone makes use of them for real work, even colleges.

 

The obvious exceptions being colleges researching quantum computing, of course.

 

That said... There are only 3 actual quantum computers. Google, NASA, and Lockheed Martin own them.

So far, the expectations are that these will be used in weather forcasting/modelling, air-traffic control, and (probably) code-breaking.

 

This is not the type of computer we can expect at home for maybe 100 years, as the cooling needs are extremely impractical.

[DKL]

Great, thanks! I thought it was still extremely new, and was surprised to see it in Scorpion at all.

[Godlygamer23]

Moved to CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory.

[vanished]

So far, the expectations are that these will be used in weather forcasting/modelling, air-traffic control, and (probably) code-breaking.

 

I wonder if they could be applied to folding?  Imagine if they could offset millions of home PCs, the progress that could be made with a couple dozen quantum computers!

[Cheddle]

I just watched a video from D-Wave about their Quantum Processor. 

 

How fast are these currently? Are they already performing thousands of times faster then a silicon based CPU because it uses superposition; Meaning 0 and 1 exist in the same time?

 

played FO4?

 

Remember P.A.M - they are about as useful as her.

[cynicaldriver]

I wonder if they could be applied to folding?  Imagine if they could offset millions of home PCs, the progress that could be made with a couple dozen quantum computers!

I would imagine quantum computers are ideal for stuff like that, but I think it may be a while before regular medical research companies can afford to build and maintain one of these, or get useful data from them. The future sure looks bright on this front though!

[vanished]

What's interesting to me is that they can actually calculate a factor of how much faster it is than a normal computer. Like 100000x, etc.  My understanding is they can do so much more because they can evaluate any number of alternative scenarios all simultaneously as opposed to how a normal computer would have to check each, one after the other.  If that's true, shouldn't attempting to calculate how much faster it is be like dividing by zero?  Like, the quantum speed would be infinite by comparison...  :huh: ?

[FruitBasketSilex]

It's hard to say, as a quantum computer doesn't necessarily speed up the process of calculations, it just shortens the amount of calculations it has to do because its able to evaluate different calculations at once due to the superposition of 1&0. It succeeds well in highly parralelized workloads.

[cynicaldriver]

@Ryan_Vikers No, there are a finite number of possible scenarios they could test in a single quantum computer, based on the number of qubits the "processor" can produce at a given time.