A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum ComputerThe newest Pentium chip powering PCs and laptops contains 40 million electronic switches packed onto a piece of silicon about the size of a thumbnail. Several years from now, if this incredible shrinking continues, a single chip will hold a billion switches, then a trillion. The logical culmination is a computer in which the switches are so tiny that each consists of an individual atom. At that point something miraculous happens: Quantum mechanics kick in. Anyone who follows the science news or watches 'Star Trek' has at least a notion of what that means: particles that can be in two or more places at once, that can seem one moment like hard little specks of matter and the next like waves. Atoms obey a peculiar logic of their own - and if it can be harnessed society will be transformed. Problems that would now take for ever even on a supercomputer would be solved almost instantly. Quantum computing promises nothing less than a shortcut through time. In this brief and totally absorbing book, we are brought to the front of one of the most engaging and far-reaching scientific dramas of this new century. The ticket for admission is a rough feel for a few basic ideas, and a willingness |
Contents
The Road to Blue Mountain | 3 |
Tinkertoy Logic | 19 |
Playing with Mirrors | 32 |
Copyright | |
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Alice Alice and Bob amplitude answer arithmetic atoms beam become binary Blue Mountain bouncing calculations called cells cellular automaton chip classical computer clock clockwise complex controlled NOT gate counterclockwise cryptography David Deutsch decoherence device digits electrical electrons encoded encrypted entangled error experiment exponential factoring faster Figure filter flip Geniac Grover's Grover's algorithm horizontal idea input inside interact kind larger number laser pulses light logic manipulate mathematical mathematicians measured million molecule NP-complete output parity bits particles pattern photons physicists possible problem processors proteins puter quan quantum computer Quantum Cryptography quantum mechanics quantum superposition quantum switches qubits rectilinear representing result scientists sequence Shor Shor's algorithm simple simulate simultaneously single solve spinning spools square string subatomic supercomputer Suppose tape Tinkertoy tiny tion traveling salesman problem trillion Turing machine vertical wave wavelets Wineland wires