Two teams working at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) claim to have an answer to problems creating quantum supercomputers.
Quantum bits – qubits – are building blocks for quantum computers and the teams now say they’ve come up with qubits that process data with an accuracy above 99 percent.
Quantum computers won’t become a reality until very low error rates are achieved, said Professor Andrew Dzurak, director of the Aussie fabrication unit at UNSW.
The teams claim to have arrived at two parallel pathways for building a quantum computer in silicon.
Dzurak said that the teams have created a so-called artificial atom that is very similar to silicon transistors used in MOSFETs. He said the experiments are the earliest using solid state devices and the first in silicon.
How far off is an effective quantum supercomputer? The answer to that question is unclear but the next step is to create pairs of qubits, with the real thing containing thousands of millions of qubits, perhaps using thousands of millions of artificial and natural atoms.
