Google, NASA's quantum computer is 100 million times faster than yours

Google, NASA's quantum computer is 100 million times faster than yours - Unless you too own a quantum computer, Google and NASA likely have you beat, but there is a caveat.

Google and NASA announced at an event at NASA's Ames Research Center that the D-Wave quantum computer they bought in 2013 has proven itself to be 100 million times faster than a conventional single-core computer, MIT Technology Review reports. The test, which Google detailed on its research blog, consisted of two computers computing the same optimization problem.

Where traditional computing differentiates bits of data into 0s and 1s, quantum computing lets those bits of data exist as a 0 and a 1 simultaneously. This simultaneity lets users compute many data solutions at once, and increases speed while decreasing required energy over a traditional computer.

Quantum computers are designed to handle complex optimization problems, which are problems designed to find the best solution from all possible solutions. To prove the prowess of the D-Wave quantum computer, Google and NASA devised a complex optimization problem to be A/B-tested between the D-Wave and a single-core computer operating using an algorithm which simulates a quantum computer, called simulated annealing.

While Google and NASA touted the D-Wave's impressive speed, not everyone is convinced by its outright dominance just yet. Speaking to New Scientist

Matthias Troyer, professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, said that the results were "misleading."

“This is [100 million] times faster than some specific classical algorithm on problems designed to be very hard for that algorithm but easy for D-Wave," said Troyer, meaning both computers were running algorithms designed for the D-Wave, giving the D-Wave an unfair advantage. Troyer says a traditional computer running a different simulated annealing algorithm could only be 100 times slower than the D-Wave, not 100 million times slower.

In any case, it's easy to imagine Google's excitement at the possible implications for better search afforded by quantum computing. Like many other tech companies, it wants to make its search as humanistic as possible, and quantum computing is a possible way to do this.  Source: Mashable

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