IBM Reveals the World's First Commercial Integrated Quantum Computer

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
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This morning at CES 2019, IBM unveiled the Q System One, which it claims to be "the world's first integrated universal approximate quantum computing system designed for scientific and commercial use." Apparently, previous quantum computers have all been confined to research labs because they're tedious to operate and maintain, but IBM seems to think their engineering breakthroughs make the Q System One a viable computer to sell. Auto-calibrating quantum hardware, a robust cryogenic system, compact control electronics, and "quantum firmware to manage the system health and enable system upgrades without downtime for users" are among the innovations IBM highlighted. There's no word on pricing, but IBM's high-end classical computers usually fall into the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" category. Check out the video below:

Their design includes a nine-foot-tall, nine-foot-wide case of half-inch thick borosilicate glass forming a sealed, airtight enclosure. Its glass door opens effortlessly, simplifying the system's maintenance and upgrade process while minimizing downtime - making the IBM Q System One uniquely suited for reliable commercial use. A series of independent aluminum and steel frames unify, but also decouple the system's cryostat, control electronics, and exterior casing, helping to isolate the system components for improved performance.
 
But the real question is, how many VMs will it run and will it print server? :geek:
 
"It’s more like a stepping stone than a practical quantum computer," Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the UK’s University of Sussex, told The Verge. "Don’t think of this as a quantum computer that can solve all of the problems quantum computing is known for. Think of it as a prototype machine that allows you to test and further develop some of the programming that might be useful in the future."

https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/8/18171732/ibm-quantum-computer-20-qubit-q-system-one-ces-2019
 
No - the real question is if it can run Crysis.

It's interesting how the description of physical bulk, environmental and maintenance provisions etc recall similar aspects of the first huge electronic computers from the 1940s and 50s.
 
No - the real question is if it can run Crysis.

It's interesting how the description of physical bulk, environmental and maintenance provisions etc recall similar aspects of the first huge electronic computers from the 1940s and 50s.
It won’t run Crysis, but it will simulate every possible combination of keystrokes required to beat it flawlessly.
 
Fuck Crysis, man, it's got to run DOOM or it's useless. DOOM runs on most everything - I think I saw a project where they actually got it working on a classic Casio digital watch one time. :D

Oh, yeah, I am disappoint as there's no SKYNET reference so far in this thread, at least until I just made it. :p

Since the idea of a quantum computer is 3 states or "qubits," I figure this one will get to a point where it goes sentient and then:

- Humans are good
- Humans are bad
- Kill 'em all
 
"if you have to ask you cant afford it" always intrigued me. I think it wasn't until POWER 8 that they gave the list price out (Similar ballpark to xeon platinum)
 
Good read on how extremely far we are away from actual quantum computing...

https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/the-case-against-quantum-computing

Good read with a healthy dose of reality.

My favorite part:
To repeat: A useful quantum computer needs to process a set of continuous parameters that is larger than the number of subatomic particles in the observable universe.

At this point in a description of a possible future technology, a hardheaded engineer loses interest.
 
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fyi, qubits dont have 3 states like trinary (which has existed and has already been used in various memory technologies). It has 2 states and then a third state that's a superposition of the other two states (both and neither at the same time). You never read back this "3rd" state, it's an intermediate processing state. Reading back, you always get one of the binary options. Not both, not neither. It has to collapse to a real state.
 
Uh... the only thing "real" about IBM is their marketing.
 
The real question isn't about Crysis. How many FPS can it ray trace BFV in real time at 1080p?
 
This would be useful for those times when the CEO forgets his password and the CTO finds out he doesn't have the envelope with the spare copy of the CEO's password in his safe.


Most companies don't do pure research, they do near-edge engineering research, and a quantum computer is a little bit specialized for most uses. The researchers who could really use this device won't be able to afford one unless there is a nuclear weapon or an unbreakable crypto key involved. But Marketing - those are the guys who really need this thing. You need to know -exactly- who would buy a platinum-plated ball washer? The IBM Q System One will tell you. You need to know the best place to open a chain of bison burger fast food restaurants? The IBM ... wait, that would be Montana and Idaho. And Colorado. And, uh, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, too, but that would be it, so don't bother buying a Q System. But the IBM Q System One would have told you that, too.

Sadly, the people who work in marketing would be too stupid to know how to program it.


P.S. Great idea for a private company, though. A specialist consulting company with quantum computers, the beards-and-t-shirt types who are able to program them, and an interface team that has strong backgrounds in data science and taking people to lunch.
 
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Lol, I've been both on lunches and taken other to lunch without the aid of neckbeard quantum computers for sale meets. They may be of special use to a few, most will do just fine without them for some time.
 
Lol, I've been both on lunches and taken other to lunch without the aid of neckbeard quantum computers for sale meets. They may be of special use to a few, most will do just fine without them for some time.

:) Sorry, just being sarcastic. My university had two computer science departments, one in the College of Engineering and one in the College of Business. They both overlap - students could take classes from either department, they are equivalent degrees, and I used to teach some core computer science classes for both. It's funny to work in the College of Business, because a lot of the faculty from the (business) Computer Science department, the Accounting department and the Economics department get really nasty about the Marketing and Public Relations department. For some awful and shameful reason, I have allowed this humor to rub off on me.

One day I was coming up the stairs to the College of Business main office and I heard one of our accounting professors telling the office administrator that she needed to order universal male / female pictograms for the bathroom doors so the marketing freshmen would know which bathroom to use.
 
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