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Quantum computers may
replace PCs...
Radhakrishna Rao
 WHILE
the silicon-based conventional computers are slowly and surely edging
closer to their peak performance in terms of information storage and
data search, researchers are on a look out for the smarter technological
tools that would go beyond the barriers of classical physics. It is
against this backdrop that for many years now physicists have been
toying with the idea of a computational device that could be as small as
a teacup based on the well-defined laws of Quantum Mechanics.
The current genre of
computers work by manipulating bits of data that are represented by the
binary digits, 0 and 1. Obviously, every data that is fed into the
computer is represented by a collection of bits. In distinct contrast, a
quantum-computing machine is not hindered by the nuances of binary. It
is a multi-faceted entity that could function based on qubits that could
be a combination of 0 and 1 or a number between 0 and 1.
In 1985, David Deutsch of
the University of Oxford said that any physical process, in principle,
could be modelled perfectly by a quantum computer. However, in the
classical quantum theory these qubits are indeterminate till they are
examined and analysed thoroughly. In the subatomic world of quantum
computing, data is stored as a series of quantum mechanical states: spin
directions or orientations of a photon. The most striking advantage
associated with quantum computing is that the atoms change energy states
very rapidly - much faster than the faster computer processor currently
in use. This clearly implies that for a right type of problem, each
qubit can take the place of an entire processor.
Researchers have succeeded
in building two and three qubit quantum computers capable of performing
some simple arithmetical data sorting. But before the commercially
viable, full-fledged quantum computers are readied, many problems need
to be addressed. Among the difficulties on the road to the realisation
of a quantum computing machine are error correction, decoherence and
hardware architecture.
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