Quantum Computers - The World`s Fist Quantum Computer

Computers are evolving at an alarming speed. Virtually every 18 months, the number of components which computer-chip makers can squeeze onto a chip for data storage or processing doubles, as design and manufacturing methods improve. If you just think that 30 years ago, the smallest dimensions of a chip, such as the width of the connecting wires, were ten microns (10 millionths of a metre) , nowadays it`s 100 nanometres (100 billionths of a metre) or less is the typical size. By 2020, according to specialists, the circuit elements would be as small as atoms. Long before then, the bits of electric charges that store information and drive processing power will start to leak away. So, scientists tought of taking a radical approach rather then walking this "old" fashioned road. You can see in the picture above (and through this article) is a part of the D-Wave Quantum Computer.

So, what would a quantum computer have to offer compared to todays supercomputers? Devastating processing speed, to "break" many of the cryptographic systems in use today that would take years or decades for a supercomputer, it would take no time at all for a quantum computer. The real applications for this incredible tehnology, are just in their infancy.

What is a Quantum Computer?
Instead of using bits as clasical computers (information is coded either as 0 and 1), it uses qubits, thanks to quantum properties, called superposition. Like a bit, a qubit can have two possible values–normally a 0 or a 1. The difference is that whereas a bit must be either 0 or 1, a qubit can be 0, 1, or a superposition of both.
In an everyday computer, the program has to operate on its stored information in sequence, one bit at a time. Even so, that can allow for billions of calculations every second. A quantum computer can process all the information in all the qubits simultaneously – geeks call this parallel processing. Imagine having millions of desk tops running side by side rather than just one, all working on the same problem. Yet a quantum computer will need only one processor. The consequence of all this is devastating processing speed when compared with the 'classic' computers of today. A really tough problem like the big number factorisation, that would take a supercomputer years or decades to crack, can be crunched – at least in theory – by a quantum computer in very little time at all.

Now, you thinck that i`m talking sci-fi here? Think again!
In 2005, researchers at the University of Michigan built a semiconductor chip which functioned as an ion trap. Such devices, produced by standard lithography techniques, may point the way to scalable quantum computing tools. An improved version was made in 2006.

D-Wave Systems Inc. claims to be the world’s first — and only — provider of quantum computing systems designed to run commercial applications. On 13 February, 2007 they ran an initial demonstration of their Orion quantum computing system, which is built around a 16-qubit superconducting adiabatic quantum computer processor. However, since D-Wave Systems has not released the full details of Orion to the scientific community, many experts in the field have expressed skepticism.