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发帖数: 1034 | 1 Google sets up a research lab to build quantum-computing hardware
Image Credit: Google
September 2, 2014 3:26 PM
Jordan Novet
The always-innovative Google has come up with its own technology for storing
data, running applications, and learning from huge data sets. Now Google is
developing the best hardware for quantum computing.
The news came today in a blog post in which the tech giant admitted to
having set up a “hardware initiative” as part of its quantum artificial
intelligence lab, with help from Prof. John M. Martinis and his group at the
University of California, Santa Barbara.
Quantum computing, as opposed to classical or conventional computing,
involves going beyond standard binary one-or-zero processes. Instead, it
opts for a probability that it might be either or both and thus can be
faster for certain kinds of computation. Researchers at universities all
over the globe have long developed techniques and hardware for quantum
computing. Today’s move amounts to a talent reach on Google’s part.
It’s not too surprising, given that Google has cause to optimize at every
level of its operations as it offers technology for more and more consumers
and businesses. Now that strategy has extended to the heady research-
oriented world of quantum computing.
The announcement has some serious implications. First, it shows an
acceleration of the desire to produce the right gear for an application.
That would suggest Google foresees interesting uses of quantum computing,
which the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has hinted at in recent months.
The progress shows existing tools at Google’s service might not be enough,
either. Last year, Google teamed up with NASA to bring in quantum-computing
hardware from D-Wave. Google has worked with D-Wave technology as early as
2007. The collaboration with D-Wave will continue, but it’s not Google’s
only collaboration now.
Meanwhile, one could also read the move as an encroachment on Microsoft
territory: Microsoft has a quantum-computing research outpost on the UCSB
campus.
“With an integrated hardware group the Quantum AI team will now be able to
implement and test new designs for quantum optimization and inference
processors based on recent theoretical insights as well as our learnings
from the D-Wave quantum annealing architecture,” Google engineering
director (and Google Glass co-founder) Hartmut Neven wrote in today’s blog
post. |
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