Lifeboat Foundation

A tiny self-organized mesh full of artificial synapses recalls its experiences and can solve simple problems. Its inventors hope it points the way to devices that match the brain’s energy-efficient computing prowess.

North Korea’s impressive cyber capabilities, explained.

Sending satellites into space is going to continue to get cheaper since SpaceX proved it could reliably launch refurbished rockets. This is going to open up space exploration to more entities allowing for the continued democratization of space. Other technological advances could make a global space centered sharing economy a real possibility.

The rise of the internet and the ubiquity of mobile computing devices have changed everything from travel and shopping to politics – think Uber, Amazon, and Twitter.

Intel’s quantum computing efforts have yielded a new 17-qubit chip, which the company has just delivered to its partner in that field, QuTech in the Netherlands. It’s not a major advance in the actual computing power or applications — those are still in very early days — but it’s a step toward production systems that can be ordered and delivered to spec rather than experimental ones that live in a physics lab somewhere.

Intel’s celebration of this particular chip is a bit arbitrary; 17 isn’t some magic number in the quantum world, nor does this chip do any special tricks other quantum computer systems can’t. Intel is just happy that its history and undeniable expertise in designing and fabricating chips and architectures is paying off in a new phase of computing.

I chatted with Intel’s director of quantum hardware, Jim Clarke, about the new system.

Manufacturing will be key to quantum computing, but don’t throw out your current processor just yet.

Intel says it is shipping an experimental quantum computing chip to research partners in The Netherlands today. The company hopes to demonstrate that its packaging and integration skills give it an edge in the race to produce practical quantum computers.

The chip contains 17 superconducting qubits—the quantum computer’s fundamental component. According to Jim Clarke, Intel’s director of quantum hardware, the company chose 17 qubits because it’s the minimum needed to perform surface code error correction, an algorithm thought to be necessary to scaling up quantum computers to useful sizes.

Intel’s research partners, at the TU Delft and TNO research center Qutech, will be testing the individual qubits’ abilities as well as performing surface code error correction and other algorithms.

Continue reading “Intel Accelerates Its Quantum Computing Efforts With 17-Qubit Chip” »

At its Ignite developer conference yesterday, Microsoft announced that it has developed a new programming language designed to not only run on current computers but on the most advanced machines of the future: quantum computers. Ignite is running from Sept. 25–29 in Orlando.

Like many other of the world’s largest tech companies, Microsoft has been working to develop quantum computers that could handle massively complex problems in minutes or seconds. Unlike today’s conventional devices that use the digital bits “0” and “1,” quantum computers use qubits that can act as 0s, 1s or both simultaneously.

Microsoft said its new quantum computing language, which has yet to be named, is “deeply integrated” into its Visual Basic development environment and does many of the things other standard programming languages do. However, it is specifically designed to allow programmers to create apps that will eventually run on true quantum computers.

Intelligent Machines

Google reveals blueprint for quantum supremacy.

The ability of quantum machines to outperform classical computers is called quantum supremacy. Now Google says it has this goal firmly in its sights.

Continue reading “Google has unveiled plans to build quantum machines that are vastly superior to classical computers” »

The HGST Ultrastar Hs14 offers reliability in spades, not to mention some serious speed on the performance front.