c186282
2025-02-21 08:25:30 UTC
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PermalinkMicrosoft has announced a breakthrough that could lead to
the most powerful quantum computers of all time.
They created a new chip, called 'Majorana 1,' which is powered
by a new state of matter called a topological state.
This phase of matter is not characterized by the traditional
physical properties that define a solid, liquid or gas.
Instead, it's defined by its topological properties — how
the material's wavefunctions behave and connect across space.
This topological state is created by the chip's topoconductor,
a first-of-its-kind material that produces fundamental units
of information that serve as the building blocks for
quantum computers.
. . .
ERROR in quantum computers has been a BIG problem.
Various ways to work around errors have been explored
but none have been 100% good.
The new M$ chip is at least claimed to produce far
fewer errors.
"Scale" has also been an issue. The previous designs
have not been easy to scale up. Again, the M$ chip
MAY have made all that better.
M$ mostly seems to ABSORB money - it's nice to see
them 'give something back'.
Quantum computing isn't a panacea for EVERY processing
annoyance ... but it CAN simplify some of those more
extreme physics/math problems by a LOT.
Flip, if you want privacy/security then you'll need
to switch to quantum-resistant encoding methods. Also
the Chinese have surely already stolen this tech and
will be making their own versions Real Soon.
"TopoConductors" are not REALLY a "new state of matter",
more a kind of interaction of various fields on a 2-D
surface. Very clever. It'll be neater if they can do
it in 3-D someday. Imagine a sort of 'crystal ball'
where quantum waves interact across the whole mass.