Gadgetory

on the threshold of quantum computing this is wonkey but stay with me you know how we're used to things getting smaller and smaller faster and faster in electronics what's about to happen with quantum computing is going to make the past look incredibly slow welcome to one of our quantum computing labs IBM recently announced a breakthrough in its ability to store data on a single atom now that atom can just represent a single one or zero which may not sound like much of an accomplishment but that's the basic building block of every file in the world right CNET Steven Shanklin reports today's best technology uses about a hundred thousand atoms to represent 1:1 or zero hundred thousand fold increase is pretty impressive now you're probably thinking right now great my USB thumbdrive getting a hundred thousand times smaller I'll never find it this isn't really about driving smaller things in consumer products complexity and power are today's computers relatively big horsey bits can represent either a 1 or a 0 but atomic quantum bits called qubits can be both a 1 and a 0 based on the particles magnetic state often compared to the direction of a compass needle on top of that orientation is a layer of probability of that orientation which is in itself another form of information on the same bit and when you gather an array of particles with such rich information their density of storage or of computing power scales exponentially that can lead to machines that can actually make calculations models and AI learnings that are impossible today the weather forecast might become a guarantee or cancer detection a certainty many researchers feel quantum computers don't so much replace today's classical machines but pick up where they're about to peter out you see we're fast approaching some physical limits of Moore's law which has been driving these convulsive increases in processing speed and data storage density that's because these little tiny microscopic connections you see on an integrated circuit are actually in the way quantum computing goes to a whole other level where those are no longer a hurdle idea of putting quantum computing on the cloud it is the beginning of something in truly important now don't start thinking this quantum computing technology is coming to your phone or your laptop anytime soon it's being envisioned largely as cloud based machines that can store incredible amounts or do amazing calculations but that of course begs the question where's the pipeline to then deliver that performance down to the end user be it an individual or a company or organization 6g anyone to know what's next in the world of technology go to cnet.com slash