D-Wave Slides from SC07 progress in quantum computing panel

[coderman]

http://dwave.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/slides-from-sc07-progress-in-quantum-computing-panel/

click on Mr. T for the power point file.  (hah!)

i love the prominent featuring of Google partnership on this project.
surely Google / In-Q-Tel dollars will surge through the floodgates of
measured skepticism shortly...

some highlights:

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D-Wave approach: Superconducting adiabatic quantum computer

- Extremely fast: Special purpose processor; superconducting
electronics are naturally fast (700+ GHz)

- Extremely low power: In principle reversible (zero heat generation);
in practice power consumption & heat generation drastically reduced
(factors of millions)

- At the limits of physics: Universal quantum computer can't do better

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slides 14-21 are nice visualizations of the adiabatic QC implementation and use.

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adiabatic quantum computation model:

- Computer initialized in "easy to reach" (convex) ground state

- Answer encoded in final state

- All currents adjusted slowly enough so that system remains in ground
state at all times

- AQC can be universal for QC  [ed: this is the crux, algorithms to
express some problems in AQC model difficult (right now)]

- AQC is exact by definition

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quantum annealing computation model:

- Computer initialized in ground state

- Answer encoded in final state

- All currents adjusted over period of time fixed by user [ed: key
difference wrt AQC]

- QA is a heuristic algorithm [ed: key difference wrt AQC]

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D-Wave processors can implement either AQC or QA models of computation.

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Summary of preliminary result

- A set of progressively more powerful superconducting quantum
processors have been built  [ed: 28 qubits in demo]

- Next generation Q3/2008 targets competition with incumbent QUBO
solver methods (500+ qubits)

- Web services architecture operational at several levels of
abstraction from hardware; APIs documented and available