First Quantum Computer now Commerical?

[piareround]

Hey guys a friend of mine found this article about the world's first commercially available quantum computer.

On Wednesday, D-Wave Systems made history by announcing the sale of the world's first commercial quantum computer. The buyer was Lockheed Martin Corporation, who will use the machine to help solve some of their "most challenging computation problems." Lockheed purchased the system, known as D-Wave One, as well as maintenance and associated professional services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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I remain slightly skeptical given controversy and criticism surround D-wave in the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Systems#Criticism"

So I was hoping members of physics-forums could provide some insight into the accuracy of this article. Has anyone else heard of this discovery? Do they know how accurate the claim of it being a quantum computer is? Does it actually use particles to compute things and is quantum hardware or its it simply an quantum software that mimics what a quantum computer should do?

P.S. I am not sure if we have talked about this specific even before on physics forums, so I apologize in advance if I am repeating an article.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I'm not an expert on this subject but I would have thought that a workable quantum computer would have made much greater news than this.

If someone had even made a demonstrable prototype (i.e. rather than small experiments in QC had built a fully workable computer) that would be a massive breakthrough.

 

[GNRtau]

I think it is pretty accurate. My dad has taken a recent interest in the subject, so I've been seeing all sorts of papers regarding quantum computing recently. That being said, I am taking this with a hint of skepticism. I don't pretend to be an expert on quantum computing, so I could be wrong. As for the lack of media coverage, keep in mind that most news outlets preferred to cover Lindsay Lohan rather than the final voyage of Spaceship Endeavor, so I wouldn't discount it because of that...

 

[Fyzix]

I think it is pretty accurate. My dad has taken a recent interest in the subject, so I've been seeing all sorts of papers regarding quantum computing recently. That being said, I am taking this with a hint of skepticism. I don't pretend to be an expert on quantum computing, so I could be wrong. As for the lack of media coverage, keep in mind that most news outlets preferred to cover Lindsay Lohan rather than the final voyage of Spaceship Endeavor, so I wouldn't discount it because of that...

I in no way intend to "put you down", but WTF?
Your father has taken a interest in thsi subject recently and thus this has a bigger chance of being valid?

He didn't mean that you would find this on People magazine but ANY science site.

 

[GNRtau]

I never intended it that way. That is why I said I am not an expert in this. Nor is my father.
I never said that it had a bigger chance of being valid, the reason I said that was that I remember seeing it somewhere in the papers, and also somewhere online. Those sources might be completely unreliable. Or maybe it was just another small experiment like ryan_m_b said.

I didn't expect to be on People, but if it were a fully functional quantum computer, than that is fairly big news. Big enough to be on the news, or so I would think. I was just pitching out a reason that it is unheard of if it was a fully functional quantum computer.

I'll look for it some more later, and if I was wrong, I was wrong.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I never intended it that way. That is why I said I am not an expert in this. Nor is my father.
I never said that it had a bigger chance of being valid, the reason I said that was that I remember seeing it somewhere in the papers, and also somewhere online. Those sources might be completely unreliable. Or maybe it was just another small experiment like ryan_m_b said.

I didn't expect to be on People, but if it were a fully functional quantum computer, than that is fairly big news. Big enough to be on the news, or so I would think. I was just pitching out a reason that it is unheard of if it was a fully functional quantum computer.

I'll look for it some more later, and if I was wrong, I was wrong.

You would find this on all the worlds news, it would be revolutionary. A fully functional QC would be a ground breaking technology changing everything! It's not just some minor technical achievement in a tiny field.

 

[I like Serena]

I've seen D-Wave mentioned a number of times already in the past as having a revolutionary quantum computer.
Till now there has been no confirmation, so I consider these reports to be publicity stunts.
I think we're seeing their latest publicity stunt yet.
It seems clear that they are doing something with quantum computers, and who knows, perhaps they have found an investor here...
We'll see.

 

[piareround]

I've seen D-Wave mentioned a number of times already in the past as having a revolutionary quantum computer.
Till now there has been no confirmation, so I consider these reports to be publicity stunts.
I think we're seeing their latest publicity stunt yet.
It seems clear that they are doing something with quantum computers, and who knows, perhaps they have found an investor here...
We'll see.

Yeah honestly I find that either quantum computers right now have multiple definitions or the primary definition itself is very ambigious. Kind of like physics definition of time interval or pulse width varies in mathematical definition. While it only confirmed really my speculative opinion I already had of D-wave, I did want to thank you all for your input. I really means lot to me ^_^

 

[danR]

Yeah honestly I find that either quantum computers right now have multiple definitions or the primary definition itself is very ambigious. Kind of like physics definition of time interval or pulse width varies in mathematical definition. While it only confirmed really my speculative opinion I already had of D-wave, I did want to thank you all for your input. I really means lot to me ^_^

I live in Vancouver, and this is/was the area where this story started. They have published one peer-reviewed paper on annealed quantum systems, which does nothing to prove their quantum model, one of the Nature comments on the company complains of unanswered queries, they have reported a sale of one machine to Lockheed-Martin, without the latter specifying whether they actually want a quantum computer, or something at a reasonable price that will answer to their inputs against competitor's offerings.

It's not hard to imagine a company offering a black-box with conventional massively parallel computing innards, at a loss, to L-M, for the publicity it would gain.

With ports or a cryostat for liquid helium, or something, that doesn't actually do anything, although it may be some kind of fancy superconducting computer, without being a quantum computer.

This topic already has a post in the Hoax or Debunking forum or something similar on PF. For my two cents, that's where it belongs.

 

[f95toli]

I am not at all sure that the computer D-Wave has sold Lockheed-Martin is actually "useful" in the practial sense (I am actually pretty sure it is not, my guess is that it is Lockheed-Martins way of funneling money into this line of reserch).
Moreover, I am not convinced that quantum annealing is actually a viable technique for real-world problems.

However, what I am sure of is that it is not a "hoax". At least not if one by "hoax" mean that they are deliberatly trying to misslead anyone. D-Wave has published a whole bunch of papers over the past ten years and so and have been quite visible at various conferences over the past year (I went to ASC2010 in Washington in August and a whole bunch of people from D-Wave where there and gave a few good talks). They've also recently employed quite a few good experimental physicistst (and already had a few good theorists working for them).

D-Wave is a controversial company which in the past have used to questionable (albeit not illegal) business practices which is why many people do not like them, but this in itself does not mean that what they are doing is a hoax.

(I should perhaps in the name of full disclosure mention that I know a few people who work for D-Wave, although I know even more people who USED to work for them therefore do not like them at all)

 

[danR]

I've looked at the discussion on the Wikipedia entry on the company. 'Hoax' is strong language, possibly even actionable. There's no law against calling a ball of Silly-Putty a quantum computer.

That's the business world. Someone is making money off D-Wave, and I guess that's what counts.

But the question has no business in the Quantum Section of PF. The vast majority of experts in the field have no high praise for the Quantum-computingness of the outfit.

One interesting Wiki comment: it's not enough to have a quantum-computation device to make it a Turing-complete computer. Computers are programmable. All commercial computers are Turing machines.

At best, what D-Wave may have is single-purpose contraption, analogous to a WWII enigma decoder, or a B-29 bombsight.

If they have sold L-M an array processor or something that computes turbulence behind a hypersonic shock-front that performs to L-M's satisfaction, what does L-M care what it really is? They're in the business of making a profit selling airframes.

The fact that the thing may not be a 'quantum' computer, or even a 'computer' at all is irrelevant to L-M.