"Quantum computing brings us to worlds that were impossible in classical computing"

So said Scott Crowder, IBM's vice president of quantum computing. Crowder attended the ChipEx2021 conference. "Among other things, we can learn how bacteria use their energy efficiently or predict the effects of events such as the blocking of the Suez Canal on the economy."

"Quantum computing brings us to worlds that were impossible in classical computing." Says Scott Crowder, vice president of quantum computing at IBM. Crowder said these things at the ChipEx2021 conference held in Tel Aviv organized by the ASG company.

"The reason we're so interested in quantum computing is because we might think that classical computers can solve any problem just by making them big enough but unfortunately, that's not true. There are phenomena that, if we know how to calculate them, it will greatly affect human society. I will give some examples: today we use all the energy in car engines and power plants.. We know that in nature bacteria are much more efficient than us in using energy. If we are able to understand this chemical reaction better it could have huge implications for our society. We can produce more efficient energy and really address our climate change problems.

"The second example is on a completely different topic. The Suez Canal was recently blocked, we live in a very, very complex interdependent world where the ability to predict and model the consequences of events on our financial systems is very important. This will improve the stability of our companies and help us drive growth. And finally, the world we've lived in for the last year and a half has shown us how important it is to make very rapid improvements in our drugs. Drug discovery is of critical importance to human society."

“The good news is that we're really at the beginning of a whole new era of computing. We've been doing classical computation for a very, very long time. Long before the 40s, it is debatable whether it was when we counted buffaloes in caves that we performed a classical calculation with our fingers. In the 40s, we invented the electronic computer and digital programming. Computing devices have completely changed the face of the world. Quantum computing is completely different from classical computers. It is based on a completely different science - quantum information - based on quantum mechanics. The main problem with classical calculation is that although it solved many material problems and improved the quality of life significantly. The problem is that his development is linear. If you want to double the power of a classic computer, you basically have to double or more the number of bits, put in double the amount of memory, double the amount of storage, double the amount of bits in the processor to double the power of the processor. In the field of quantum information, science leverages quantum mechanics, for example the ability to be in superposition to look at an exponentially larger group.

Unlike the classic computing revolution, to program a computer you had to connect all the wires and then work only in front of it. The internet allows us to interact with a real quantum computer that will connect to our classical computers.

Another thing that has changed in the last seventy years is the creation of mountains of software for classic computers. We can leverage this for quantum information, science and quantity. We don't need to create new languages ​​and it also made it much easier for people to start playing with quantum computers. So, if you can program in Python, you can program a quantum computer and we really hope that what makes it much more accessible both from a programming perspective, is that it will be possible to adapt to quantum computing.

There are computational problems that are difficult to solve on classic computers. Especially this happens in cases where each addition of a variable increases the amount of calculation by a factor of 2. Quantum computers change the situation. It's not just a GPU that does more things at the same time because then you just leverage the classic computing. This is a fundamentally different paradigm because it uses quantum mechanics.

When you reach a factor of 150-250 it is roughly like the number of atoms in the earth and if we increase it to 300 we can count on the computer all the atoms that are in the known universe. Classical computers are unable to achieve such calculations. We can do that when we have hundreds or thousands of qubits and a low error rate we can do that.

Later Crowder describes the structure of the quantum computer, the concept of superposition - that is, each qubit can be in any state between zero and one and not only at the edges as in the classical computer, he also explained the concept of qubits and how it can be used. Currently, the company offers a link to 23 quantum computers. There is still a need to increase the capacity and improve the underlying technology. This is why we chose superconductors at a temperature close to absolute zero for the qubits.

Many people - researchers and computer professionals can get early access to quantum computing. This is a brand new technology, we have the ability to shape the future workforce and turn it into a diverse and inclusive workforce, so we put a lot of emphasis on education, we prepared a lot of materials for children on YouTube and in online textbooks to encourage them to look at the fire hose called a quantum computer.

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• Basic concepts in quantum physics: what is spin?
• A twist on the paradox of information disappearing inside black holes
• Does consciousness arise from quantum mechanics?
• Basic concepts in quantum physics: where is the quantum?