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Restless Souls/Technology: Difference between revisions
Types of QC
Paradox-01 (talk | contribs) |
Paradox-01 (talk | contribs) (Types of QC) |
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Progress on the hardware level is only one side of the coin. You also need software to utilize it. A Russian team demonstrated that [http://phys.org/news/2016-06-scientists-pc-complex-problems-tens.html some scenarios requiring supercomputing can actually by handled on a desk PC] after installing a new graphics card [http://arxiv.org/pdf/1508.07441.pdf (GTX-670, CUDA supported) and self-written software.] | Progress on the hardware level is only one side of the coin. You also need software to utilize it. A Russian team demonstrated that [http://phys.org/news/2016-06-scientists-pc-complex-problems-tens.html some scenarios requiring supercomputing can actually by handled on a desk PC] after installing a new graphics card [http://arxiv.org/pdf/1508.07441.pdf (GTX-670, CUDA supported) and self-written software.] | ||
As for | As for 2018, still many PC programs can't draw advantage from multi-cores processors. To be fair, not every program need multiple cores - just as a simple text editor. Yeah, for what? However the trend is here to stay: more cores. See Intel's Core X and AMD's Threadripper 2. | ||
After these tricks (stacking, multi-core architecture, parallelism) has been fully exploited, the companies will be forced to turn to new technologies such as spintronics in 2025. | |||
Harnessing the magnetic property of electrons will not only result in less power consumption but also high clock rates. In the past years the clock speed stagnated between 4 and 5 GHz due to overheating. Processors based on spintronics won't heat up that fast, so they can operate at higher frequencies. And higher frequencies means more calculations per second. | Harnessing the magnetic property of electrons will not only result in less power consumption but also high clock rates. In the past years the clock speed stagnated between 4 and 5 GHz due to overheating. Processors based on spintronics won't heat up that fast, so they can operate at higher frequencies. And higher frequencies means more calculations per second. | ||
Oh yeah, and of course quantum computers... You often hear of "breakthroughs" but still practical examples are nowhere to be found. That's because there is quite a number of different approaches | Oh yeah, and of course quantum computers... You often hear of "breakthroughs" but still practical examples are nowhere to be found. That's because there is quite a number of different approaches. | ||
* Quantum annealing (limited use, not a general-purpose QC), see: [[wikipedia:D-Wave_Systems|D-Wave]] | |||
* Superconducting electronic circuits | |||
* Ion traps | |||
* Diamond NV center | |||
* Majorana particle (Topological QC) | |||
Each approach comes with it's own difficulties and most parts have to be constructed from scratch and the underlying logic rests on fragile particle states such as entanglement. While powerful quantum computer might just gain traction by 2050, we should see more and more hybridization of processor technologies in the meantime. | |||
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The foundation of this kind of QC are trapped ions. They require bulky vacuum chambers. That's not very elegant but due to economics' tendency to create cash cows the development of better approaches will be delayed. It can only be hoped that the ion QC will provide enough computing power to accelerate further research and therefor compensate the economic influence. | The foundation of this kind of QC are trapped ions. They require bulky vacuum chambers. That's not very elegant but due to economics' tendency to create cash cows the development of better approaches will be delayed. It can only be hoped that the ion QC will provide enough computing power to accelerate further research and therefor compensate the economic influence. | ||
NV-centers should take over when the ion traps cannot be shrinked any further thus giving birth to real "large scale" QC. | |||
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Let's make also an approach via economy. A company will only invest a serious amount of money into a new R&D field if it doesn't have another option. If they try it anyway, there's a high risk to fail. Latest example is HP's the machine, a still-hypothetical computer driven by memristors. The technological gap is still too wide. | Let's make also an approach via economy. A company will only invest a serious amount of money into a new R&D field if it doesn't have another option. If they try it anyway, there's a high risk to fail. Latest example is HP's the machine, a still-hypothetical computer driven by memristors. The technological gap is still too wide. | ||
"We have silicon wafers. Find something to continue with that." Spintronics... | <!--"We have silicon wafers. Find something to continue with that." Spintronics... | ||
[...] | [...] | ||
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neurosynaptic chips | neurosynaptic chips | ||
memristors <!-- | memristors --><!-- chemical change vs. spin --><!-- | ||
artifial neurons | artifial neurons | ||
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[...] | [...] | ||
Shapeshifting hardware | Shapeshifting hardware--> | ||
===Consequences=== | ===Consequences=== | ||