http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150304152621.htm
A photograph of the nine qubit device. The device conists of nine superconducting 'Xmon' transmon in a row. Qubits interact with their nearest neighbors to detect and correct errors.
Credit: Julian Kelly
[Click to enlarge image]
When scientists develop a full quantum computer, the world of computing will undergo a revolution of sophistication, speed and energy efficiency that will make even our beefiest conventional machines seem like Stone Age clunkers by comparison.
But, before that happens, quantum physicists like the ones in UC Santa Barbara's physics professor John Martinis' lab will have to create circuitry that takes advantage of the marvelous computing prowess promised by the quantum bit ("qubit"), while compensating for its high vulnerability to environmentally-induced error.
In what they are calling a major milestone, the researchers in the Martinis Lab have developed quantum circuitry that self-checks for errors and suppresses them, preserving the qubits' state(s) and imbuing the system with the highly sought-after reliability that will prove foundational for the building of large-scale superconducting quantum computers.
It turns out keeping qubits error-free, or stable enough to reproduce the same result time and time again, is one of the major hurdles scientists on the forefront of quantum computing face.
"One of the biggest challenges in quantum computing is that qubits are inherently faulty," said Julian Kelly, graduate student researcher and co-lead author of a research paper that was published in the journal Nature. "So if you store some information in them, they'll forget it."
Unlike classical computing, in which the computer bits exist on one of two binary ("yes/no," or "true/false") positions, qubits can exist at any and all positions simultaneously, in various dimensions. It is this property, called "superpositioning," that gives quantum computers their phenomenal computational power, but it is also this characteristic which makes qubits prone to "flipping," especially when in unstable environments, and thus difficult to work with.
"It's hard to process information if it disappears," said Kelly.
However, that obstacle may just have been cleared by Kelly, postdoctoral researcher Rami Barends, staff scientist Austin Fowler and others in the Martinis Group.
The error process involves creating a scheme in which several qubits work together to preserve the information, said Kelly. To do this, information is stored across several qubits.
"And the idea is that we build this system of nine qubits, which can then look for errors," he said. Qubits in the grid are responsible for safeguarding the information contained in their neighbors, he explained, in a repetitive error detection and correction system that can protect the appropriate information and store it longer than any individual qubit can.
"This is the first time a quantum device has been built that is capable of correcting its own errors," said Fowler. For the kind of complex calculations the researchers envision for an actual quantum computer, something up to a hundred million qubits would be needed, but before that a robust self-check and error prevention system is necessary.
Key to this quantum error detection and correction system is a scheme developed by Fowler, called the surface code. It uses parity information -- the measurement of change from the original data (if any) -- as opposed to the duplication of the original information that is part of the process of error detection in classical computing. That way, the actual original information that is being preserved in the qubits remains unobserved.
Why? Because quantum physics.
"You can't measure a quantum state, and expect it to still be quantum," explained Barends. The very act of measurement locks the qubit into a single state and it then loses its superpositioning power, he said. Therefore, in something akin to a Sudoku puzzle, the parity values of data qubits in a qubit array are taken by adjacent measurement qubits, which essentially assess the information in the data qubits by measuring around them.
"So you pull out just enough information to detect errors, but not enough to peek under the hood and destroy the quantum-ness," said Kelly.
This development represents a meeting of the best in the science behind the physical and the theoretical in quantum computing -- the latest in qubit stabilization and advances in the algorithms behind the logic of quantum computing.
"It's a major milestone," said Barends. "Because it means that the ideas people have had for decades are actually doable in a real system."
The Martinis Group continues to refine its research to develop this important new tool. This particular quantum error correction has been proved to protect against the "bit-flip" error, however the researchers have their eye on correcting the complementary error called a "phase-flip," as well as running the error correction cycles for longer periods to see what behaviors might emerge.
Martinis and the senior members of his research group have, since this research was performed, entered into a partnership with Google.
Strength in numbers: First-ever quantum device that detects and corrects its own errors
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Superstar
Quantum computing.I can only imagine the sorta discussions these cats have, good article man.
Marl0 Stanfield
Yeshua Ben YHWH
"Martinis and the senior members of his research group have, since this research was performed, entered into a partnership with Google."
GPBear
The Tape Crusader
Google and some Canadian company are the only two Quantum Computers in the world. There's debate about whether they truly work, or if it's just some man-behind-the-curtain stuff. Saw that on Charlie Rose a few months ago.
The reason they do this has nothing to do with you or me. It has everything to do with stock markets. Currently computers trade in fractions of seconds, quantum computers will be able to trade even faster - thus securing America's future assets, the time it takes China to develop its own shyt, we'll already have racked in trillions.
The reason they do this has nothing to do with you or me. It has everything to do with stock markets. Currently computers trade in fractions of seconds, quantum computers will be able to trade even faster - thus securing America's future assets, the time it takes China to develop its own shyt, we'll already have racked in trillions.
yup! I am completely skeptical
GPBear
The Tape Crusader
I mean, Google doesn't really have anything to gain by saying they have one and not.
Secondly, I think the fact that they're so secretive means they're far beyond anything we could imagine.
They would only keep it that tight under wraps if they were very afraid of any of the information being leaked.
Two ways to look at it I guess
Secondly, I think the fact that they're so secretive means they're far beyond anything we could imagine.
They would only keep it that tight under wraps if they were very afraid of any of the information being leaked.
Two ways to look at it I guess
joeychizzle
光復香港，時代革命
Are we actually closer to reaching a technological singularity brehs?
GPBear
The Tape Crusader
In the same sense that the invention of the alphabet, printing press, vacuum tube, or silicon transistor were technological singularities, maybe.
Marl0 Stanfield
Yeshua Ben YHWH
China's trying to improve theirs last I heard. I remember reading some story about how online trading is unfair because the major brokerages have faster computers putin'.
I wonder what effect Quantum Computing will have on 3D molecular printing. That shyt'll revolutionize/totally nationalize health care n the dope game.
In fact, I wonder if that could be the safeguard for the aristocracy in the event of a pandemic.
I'm willing to bet it just corrects itself based on what it expects to happen, not what does...
fam, its BEEN a wrap."Martinis and the senior members of his research group have, since this research was performed, entered into a partnership with Google."
By the time research places release these results the Govt has had this shyt for AGES
Marl0 Stanfield
Yeshua Ben YHWH
Can't really get a technological singularity until all technology is powered by light. Solar energy. A technological singularity should be able to be powered by a perpetually abundant resource to prevent the oligarchs who control it from waging wars to perpetuate it.
In the same sense that the invention of the alphabet, printing press, vacuum tube, or silicon transistor were technological singularities, maybe.
Then we would be able to have a socialist utopia with a society based on merits and community standing rather than ppl killing each other over 'lectric bill money.
Of course a LOT of ppl would have to be "disappeared" from society/watched closely in cordoned off sections of cities because quantum computing would enable courts and intelligence agencies virtual clairvoyance.
Quantum computers could utilize infinite algorithms to determine infinite outcomes with varying odds of actualization in regards to a citizen's life trajectory. The first time it's fully utilized in the financial sector, first with the stock market, then with credit agencies and currency exchanges and so on, it'll be like a nuke went off in society.
Citizens would be totally dependent on the gov't and then the psychologists who use the computers also. Don't think they won't be using it to determine "unhealthy patterns of behavior", which will get ur ass marked by the gov't and treated like a felon. Corporations could form super conglomerates that would report job performance/behavior and work output aka tangible value of not being disappeared or imprisoned n enslaved.
You could combine it with eugenics and after a bloodbath, begin racially and genetically structuring society based on the
whims of whoever ctrls the technological singularity. Once it's fully weaponized with both small arms and nukes, that'll be when Skynet takes over. You weaponize technology to protect real estate and property and you power this technology with the sun, eventually nuclear destruction occurs. The mainframes used to display probable outcomes and determine myriad methods of altering those outcomes would begin "giving orders" so to speak. Think of it how everyone sees a different internet because certain websites and ads are different due to browser history. A person isn't sitting there determining ur access to the net, an app is calling the shots.
Once we start giving the singularity more authority in distribution and manufacturing of goods and resources, it will make the absolute
BEST CHOICE for humanity on a technological lvl and enslave us, then turn the weapons used to protect the resources and land to keep humans from rebelling and taking shyt by force.
The aristocracy would be eliminated due to disharmony with the rest of the population, first thru the technological socialism that will be imposed thru economic quantum computers putin', then thru the
psychological computers putin' because they're fukking
inbred psychopaths and a threat to the ultimate best interest of society. The technology would be determining potential threats by constantly reanalyzing society so fast
that those who designed it to fukk ppl over would find themselves buttfukk'd.
One way to determine safer outcomes for the aristocracy would be to link the singularities of various gov'ts directly to the biometric data perpetually upgraded and corrected and sent back to the computers from the physical bodies of the elite. A threat to an elite would become a perceived threat to the welfare of society aka the welfare of the very elite themselves literally.
This is where the aristocracy's constant
jerking off to transhumanism comes from. Technology fused with humans to regulate society based on the will of those transhumans. Like literal 
cyborg gov't leaders, law enforcement, military, captains of industry, basically anyone with any pull in society.
It's funny ppl want this shyt so bad then talk about gerrymandering and redlining and employment discrimination and credit discrimination. This will put all those agendas into warp speed.
Cheer in anticipation of personal exploitation of a technological marvel while forgetting the ppl who bring it to you will use it to regulate the figgity fukk out of ur personal benefits from said marvel (see: the regulation of every major invention in the history of mankind at least dating back to electricity), higher learning brehs.
joeychizzle
光復香港，時代革命
I wonder if in our lifetime we'll ever see computers that can rival the complexity of the brain? The law dictating that technology doubles in processing power every 18 months makes me think not yet, but who knows? Leaps could be made
In the same sense that the invention of the alphabet, printing press, vacuum tube, or silicon transistor were technological singularities, maybe.
