The Quantum Leap: Revolutionizing Computing and Its Impact – Medium

Supercomputers have their limitations. Fortunately, a new technology is emerging. Its the quantum computer, utilizing phenomena at the atomic and subatomic levels. Quantum computer Chalmers [Photo: Anita Fors (Chalmers), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

Our civilization largely operates today due to computers and the data they process. However, when significant computational power is required, the existing silicon-based technology falls short. Hence, companies like IBM, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba, and a few others are currently working on prototype inventions. This is about quantum computing.

Major companies understand that whoever first masters quantum computations will gain a significant advantage over competitors. Computers based on this technology will be able to swiftly sift through massive amounts of data. They will also enable modeling complex physical or biochemical phenomena.

Quantum computers perform computations not on bits, which can hold values of 0 or 1, but on so-called qubits. These can hold different values simultaneously. Scientists leverage the principles governing the world of elementary particles to create computational machines.

Conventional computers conduct calculations on sequences of bits zeros and ones. Quantum computers employ quantum bits or qubits, which can assume both these values simultaneously this is called superposition. This exponential increase in computational power occurs as a result. Quantum computers can perform operations in one fell swoop that would take classical machines an enormous amount of time. Qubits can be constructed from individual elementary particles like electrons, atoms, or slightly larger entities loops of superconductors through which current flows incessantly.

In the realm of quantum physics, there exists a strange and not entirely understood relationship between elementary particles such as electrons. When we entangle them (for example, by bringing them close together), their fates become closely intertwined. If we then alter the properties of one, the other

See original here:

The Quantum Leap: Revolutionizing Computing and Its Impact - Medium