{"id":752344,"date":"2013-05-21T11:19:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=647714"},"modified":"2013-05-21T11:19:08","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T15:19:08","slug":"brrr-the-chilly-conditions-that-quantum-computers-need-to-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/752344","title":{"rendered":"Brrr: The chilly conditions that quantum computers need to run"},"content":{"rendered":"

The quantum computers that Lockheed Martin and Google<\/a> are buying — and that startup D-Wave is building<\/a> — have some pretty extreme operating conditions: they need to run at near zero temperatures for the quantum effects to work.<\/p>

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Investor Steve Jurvetson next to a pulse fridge that cools a D-Wave quantum computer<\/p><\/div>

As you can see in this photo from venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson<\/a>, D-Wave uses a pulse fridge to cool the quantum computer to .02 degrees above absolute zero, and they use Helium-3 in the cooling process.<\/p>

Quantum computers use a different type of processing compared to traditional computing. As GigaOM’s Jordan Novet explained it earlier this year<\/a>, “rather than working with binary yes-or-no questions \u2014 ones and zeros \u2014 quantum computing is more probabilistic, also allowing a combination of zero and one to simultaneously answer many questions with quantum bits of information, or qubits, and tell users more about the likelihood of a situation. It\u2019s not necessarily useful for all kinds of computing, but it could solve problems that current computers can\u2019t.”<\/p>

Keeping quantum computers that can perform such functions cool can be a tricky process. It’s highly energy intensive and can get expensive. But if the quantum computers are not cooled down the molecules — which are being manipulated to store data — move around chaotically and can’t be manipulated and read.<\/p>

Earlier this year<\/a> physicists at UCLA developed a new cooling process that immerses charged barium chloride molecules into a super cold cloud of calcium atoms. That research is being funded by the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation.<\/p>
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