▷ What is a quantum processor and how does it work?

Like everything in this life, you either adapt or die. And it is precisely what happens with technology and not precisely in a range of millions of years as living beings, but in a matter of years or months. Technology is advancing at a dizzying pace and large companies are constantly innovating in their electronic components. More power and less consumption to protect the environment are the premises that are fashionable today. We have reached a point where the miniaturization of integrated circuits is almost reaching the physical limit. Intel says it will be 5nm, beyond that there will be no valid Moore's Law. But another figure gains strength, and it is the quantum processor. Soon we begin to explain all its benefits.

With IBM as a precursor, major companies like Microsoft, Google, Intel and NASA are already emboldened in a fight to see who can build the most reliable and powerful quantum processor. And it is surely the near future. We see what this quantum processor is all about

Do we need a quantum processor

The current processors are based on transistors. Using a combination of transistors, logic gates are built to process the electrical signals that flow through them. If we join a series of logical gates we will obtain a processor.

The problem is then in its basic unit, the transistors. If we miniaturize these, we can place more in one place, providing more processing power. But of course, there is a physical limit to all this, when we reach transistors so small that they are in the order of nanometers, we find problems for the electrons that circulate inside them to do it correctly. There is a possibility that these will slip out of their channel, collide with other elements within the transistor and cause chain failures.

And this is precisely the problem, that we are currently reaching the limit of safety and stability to manufacture processors using classic transistors.

Quantum computing

The first thing we have to know is what is quantum computing, and it is not easy to explain. This concept departs from what we know today as classical computing, which uses bits, or binary states of "0" (0.5 volts) and "1" (3 volts) of an electrical impulse to form logical chains of computable information.

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Quantum computing for its part uses the term qubit or cubit to refer to actionable information. A qubit not only contains two states such as 0 and 1 but it is also capable of simultaneously containing 0 and 1 or 1 and 0, that is, it can have these two states at the same time. This implies that we do not have an element that takes discrete values 1 or 0, but, since it can contain both states, it has a continuous nature and within it, certain states that will be more and less stable.

The more qubits the more information can be processed

Precisely in the ability to have more than two states and to have several of these at the same time, lies its power. We may be able to do more calculations simultaneously and in less time. The more qubits the more information can be processed, in this sense it is similar to traditional CPUs.

How a quantum computer works

The operation is based on the quantum laws that govern the particles that form the quantum processor. All particles have electrons in addition to protons and neutrons. If we take a microscope and get to see a flow of electron particles, we could see that they have a behavior similar to that of waves. What characterizes a wave is that it is a transport of energy without the transport of matter, for example, sound, they are vibrations that we cannot see, but we know that they travel through the air until they reach our ears.

Well, electrons are particles that are capable of behaving either as a particle or as a wave and this is what causes states to overlap and 0 and 1 can occur at the same time. It is as if the shadows of an object were projected, at one angle we find one shape and another another. The conjunction of the two forms the shape of the physical object.

So instead of two values 1 or 0 that we know as bits, which are based on electrical voltages, this processor is able to work with more states called quanta. A quantum, in addition to measuring the minimum value that a magnitude can take (for example 1 volt), is also capable of measuring the smallest possible variation that this parameter can experience when passing from one state to another (for example, being able to differentiate the shape of an object by means of two simultaneous shadows).

We can have 0, 1 and 0 and 1 at the same time, that is, bits superimposed on top of each other

To be clear, we can have 0, 1 and 0 and 1 at the same time, that is, bits superimposed on top of each other. The more qubits, the more bits we can have on top of each other and then more values we can have simultaneously. In this way, in a 3-bit processor, we will have to do tasks that have one of these 8 values, but not more than one at a time. on the other hand, for a 3 qubit processor we will have a particle that can take eight states at a time and then we will be able to do tasks with eight operations simultaneously

To give us an idea, the most powerful processor unit ever created currently has a capacity of 10 teraflops or what is the same 10 billion floating point operations per second. A 30-qubit processor would be able to do the same number of operations. IBM already has a 50-bit quantum processor and we are still in the experimental phase of this technology. Imagine how far we can go, as you can see the performance is much higher than in a normal processor. As the qubits of a quantum processor increase, the operations it can perform multiply exponentially.

How can you create a quantum processor

Thanks to a device that is capable of working with continuous states instead of having only two possibilities, it is possible to rethink problems that until now were impossible to solve. Or also solve current problems in a faster and more efficient way. All these possibilities are opened with a quantum machine.

To “quantize” the properties of the molecules, we must bring them to temperatures close to absolute zero.

In order to achieve these states, we cannot use transistors based on electrical impulses that in the end will be either a 1 or a 0. To do this, we will have to look further, specifically at laws of quantum physics. We will have to ensure that these qubit physically formed by particles and molecules are capable of doing something similar to what transistors do, that is, of establishing relationships between them in a controlled way so that they offer us the information we want.

This is what is truly complicated and the subject to overcome in quantum computing. To “quantize” the properties of the molecules that make up the processor, we must bring them to temperatures close to absolute zero (-273.15 degrees Celsius). For the machine to know how to differentiate one state from another, we need to make them different, for example, a current of 1 V and 2 V, if we put a voltage of 1.5 V, the machine will not know that it is one or the other. And this is what must be achieved.

Disadvantages of quantum computing

The main drawback of this technology is precisely that of controlling these different states through which matter can pass. With simultaneous states, it is very difficult to perform stable calculations using quantum algorithms. This is called quantum inconsistency, although we will not go into unnecessary gardens. What we must understand is that the more qubits we will have more states, and the greater the number of states the more speed we will have, but also more difficult to control will be the errors in the changes of matter that occur.

Furthermore, the rules governing these quantum states of atoms and particles say that we will not be able to observe the computing process while it is taking place, since if we interfere with it, the superimposed states would be completely destroyed.

Quantum states are extremely fragile, and computers must be completely isolated under vacuum and at temperatures close to absolute zero to achieve an error rate of the order of 0.1%. Either manufacturers of liquid cooling put the batteries or we run out of quantum computer for Christmas. Due to all this, at least in the medium term there will be quantum computers for users, perhaps there may be a few of these distributed throughout the world in the required conditions and we can access them through the internet.

Applications

With their processing power, these quantum processors will be mainly used for scientific calculation and to solve previously unsolvable problems. The first of the application areas is possibly chemistry, precisely because the quantum processor is an element based on particle chemistry. Thanks to this one could study the quantum states of matter, today impossible to solve by conventional computers.

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After this it could have applications for the study of the human genome, the investigation of diseases, etc. The possibilities are huge and the claims are real, so we can only wait. We will be ready for the review of the quantum processor!

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