Some websites question Burnaby-based company’s claims
Peter Wilson
Sun
The Net-based buzz around Burnaby-based D-Wave Systems Inc. quantum computing demonstrations in Silicon Valley on Tuesday and at Vancouver’s Science World on Thursday has been mixed.
Some sites simply parroted the D-Wave press release saying its video hookup from a lab in Burnaby was indeed the first demonstration of a commercial quality quantum computer.
Others, relying mainly on an Associated Press report following the California launch, were more doubtful, and quoted HP quantum computer architect Phil Kuekes as saying: “Until we see more actual measurements, it’s hard to know whether it succeeded or not.”
Some critics complained the research hadn’t been subjected to peer review.
The company says it will have a 32-qubit system by the end of this year. It hopes corporate customers will be able to rent time on the quantum computer in the first quarter of 2008. That will be followed, D-Wave hopes, by a 512-qubit system, and then, at the end of 2008, by a 1,024-qubit system.
A qubit is the smallest unit of information in quantum computing, which uses quantum mechanics for its operations. A qubit is exponentially larger than a bit used in traditional computers. Quantum computers promise the ability for a life-sciences company being able to run 50 billion possible scenarios for a new drug, and then picking out the one that works.
This week’s demonstration showed D-Wave’s 16-qubit device solving Sodoku puzzles, searching a database for molecules with similar structural elements to those in the drug Prilosec, and running a seating chart program that chose suitable dining partners for the likes of Genghis Khan and Cleopatra.
In an earlier interview, company founder Geordie Rose was asked whether anyone at the demonstrations could possibly know if there really was actual quantum computing going on, especially since the demo was being done over a video link.
“To be brutally honest, of course you don’t,” said Rose. “And it would be very difficult to show that, even if you had the machine right next to you.
“With this demo we’re not asking anybody for anything. What we’re doing is showing the system in the way that we’ve designed it to function, so that people who have an interest can come back and kick the tires.
“The demo isn’t designed to get under the hood. This is more of a high-level demonstration of capability.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
