A new design scheme for a quantum processor core makes potential quantum computers more technically feasible, more efficient, and in many cases faster by keeping all the quantum bits (qubits) turned on all the time.
This is according to a group of researchers hailing from the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, Oxford University, and University College London.
Qubits in quantum computers can represent a range of complex numbers rather than the classical version of bits that take on values of 0 or 1 in conventional computers. Most existing designs switch qubits on or off depending on the operation they are performing.
The new processor model consists of an array of qubits that are quantum mechanically entangled, which is to say that they effectively record and manipulate data as a group. The key to making the always-on design work is a separate storage bank of qubits that swap information in and out of the quantum processor core.
Although the new design should be easier to implement than other quantum computer layouts, the always-on processor core has yet to be realized in the lab. When researchers iron out all the difficulties, quantum computers - based either on the quantum processor core or other designs - will outperform their classical counterparts in a variety of calculations such as simulations of problems that are inherently quantum mechanical (including many nanoscopic, molecular, and biophysical problems, to name a few).
They would also be good at factoring large numbers and tackling other mathematical problems that would take eons for even the most powerful classical computers imaginable to solve.
Source: American Physical Society 
05-22-2006
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