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SEATTLE The tech giants are locked in a race.

It might not end for another decade, and there might not be just one winner. But, at the finish line, the prize they promise is a speedy machine, a quantum computer, that will crack in minutes problems that can't be solved at all today. Builders describe revolutionary increases in computing power that will accelerate the development of artificial intelligence, help design new drugs and offer new solutions to help fight climate change.

Ready. Set. Quantum.

Relying on principles of physics and computer science, researchers are working to build a quantum computer, a machine that will go beyond the capabilities of the computers we use today by moving through information faster. Unlike the laptop screen we're used to, quantum computers display all their inner organs. Often cylindrical, the computers are an intimidating network of coils, plates, wires and bolts. And they're huge.

"We're talking about computing devices which are just unimaginable in terms of their power in what they can do," said Peter Chapman, president and CEO of IonQ, a startup in the race alongside tech giants Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, Intel and Honeywell.

The companies are riding a swell of interest that could grow to $9.1 billion in revenue by 2030, according to Tractica, a market intelligence firm that studies new technologies and how humans interact with tech advancements.

Right now, each company is deciding how to structure the building blocks needed to create a quantum computer. Some rely on semiconductors, others on light. Still others, including Microsoft, have pinned their ambitions on previously unproven theories in physics.

"Bottom line, we are in very heavy experimentation mode in quantum computing, and it's fairly early days," said Chirag Dekate, who studies the industry for research firm Gartner. "We are in the 1950s state of classical computer hardware."

There's not likely to be a single moment when quantum computers start making the world-changing calculations technologists are looking forward to, said Peter McMahon, an engineering professor at Cornell University. Rather, "there's going to be a succession of milestones."

At each one, the company leading the race could change.

In October 2019, Google said it had reached "quantum supremacy," a milestone where one of its machines completed a calculation that would have taken today's most advanced computers 10,000 years. In October last year, startup IonQ went public with an initial public offering that valued the company at $2 billion. In November, IBM said it had also created a quantum processor big enough to bypass today's machines.

In March, it was Microsoft's turn.

After a false start that saw Microsoft retract some research, it said this spring it had proved the physics principles it needed to show that its theory for building a quantum computer was, in fact, possible.

"We expect to capitalize on this to do the almost unthinkable," Krysta Svore, an engineer who leads Microsoft's quantum program, said in a company post announcing the discovery. "It's never been done before. ... [Now] here's this ultimate validation that we're on the right path."

As envisioned by designers, a quantum computer uses subatomic particles like electrons instead of the streams of ones and zeros used by computers today. In doing so, a quantum computer can examine an unimaginable number of combinations of ones and zeros at once.

A quantum computer's big selling points are speed and multitasking, enabling it to solve complex problems that would trip up today's technology.

To understand the difference between classical computers (the computers we use today) and quantum computers (the computers researchers are working on), picture a maze.

Using a classical computer, you're inside the maze. You choose a path at random before realizing it's a dead end and circling back.

A quantum computer gives an aerial view of the maze, where the system can see several different paths at once and more quickly reach the exit.

"To solve the maze, maybe you have to go 1,000 times to find the right answer," said IonQ's Chapman. "In quantum computing, you get to test all these paths all at once."

Researchers imagine quantum computers being used by businesses, universities and other researchers, though some industry leaders also talk about quantum computing as a technology that will unlock new ideas our brains can't yet imagine. (It's not likely the average household will have a quantum computer room any time soon.)

Microsoft recently partnered with paints and coatings company AkzoNobel to create a "virtual laboratory" where it will test and develop sustainable products using quantum computing to overcome some of the constraints that jam up a traditional lab setting, like access to raw materials, lack of space and concerns about toxicity.

Goldman Sachs is working to use quantum computing to speed up risk evaluation done by Wall Street traders. Boeing wants to use the advanced tech to model how materials will react to different environments, while ExxonMobil has plans to use it to simulate the chemical properties of hydrogen, hoping to develop new materials that can be used to make renewable energy.

In the long run, companies are aiming for a "fault-tolerant" quantum computer that will keep operating correctly even if components go awry. To get there, researchers are focused on keeping one thing happy: the qubit.

The computers we use today to look up the best restaurants or check the weather rely on bits, a unit of information in the computing world that is usually a zero or a one. Quantum computers rely on qubits, short for quantum bits, a unit of quantum information that can be (confusingly) both zero and one at the same time.

In a classical computer, a bit flips between zero and one. In a quantum computer, a qubit can be in both states at once, allowing it to simultaneously evaluate different possibilities.

It helps to think about qubits like a spinning coin, said Jim Clarke, director of quantum hardware for Intel. (Clarke himself is so devoted to qubits he named his German shepherd after them.)

While a coin is spinning, it is briefly both heads and tails, before it lands on one side or the other. The electrons used to make quantum calculations in Intel's machines are mid-spin.

But qubits are easily disturbed by pretty much anything, including light, noise and temperature changes. "Qubits are notoriously fickle," said Chapman from IonQ. "They are the introverts of the world."

If a qubit gets too bothered, it will lose the information it is carrying, making the computer's calculations less reliable.

When computer scientists, physicists and engineers think about their quantum strategy, a lot of the discussion revolves around the best way to keep those qubits comfortable. That discussion then sparks another: What is the best way to build a qubit?

Intel is using semiconductors. Google, IBM and Amazon Web Services are using superconductors. IonQ is taking an approach that puts atoms in a vacuum sealed chamber to create something called "trapped-ion" qubits. Other companies are using light.

Microsoft is aiming to create something new. It's taking a physics-based approach to create what it calls "topological qubits." In March, it said it got one step closer by successfully demonstrating the physics behind its qubit philosophy.

But it has said that before. In 2018, a team of Microsoft-led researchers published a paper that said it had found evidence of the type of physics it was looking to prove. Last year, the group retracted the paper, writing it could "no longer claim the observation."

Since then, the Microsoft team developed a new protocol meant to "screen out false positives," said Svore, who is working on the quantum project at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters. "We are more confident than ever in our approach."

"Just like I can't prove the sun comes up tomorrow," Microsoft can't prove it can create the qubits it is hoping for, she said. But, "We've now demonstrated on multiple devices that the physics is here."

Though a competitive race, there may be more than one prize.

"All the technologies have advantages and disadvantages," said Fred Chong, a computer science professor at the University of Chicago. "A lot of these things are still evolving. Some of the technologies are good for the near-to-medium term, some of them are a little bit more in the future, some of them are very far in the future."

Determining the shortest route to get from Seattle to Portland might best be solved by one approach, while speeding up a chemical reaction might call for something different.

Most of the companies in the race today will develop "fairly credible quantum machines," Chong said, and customers will look for ways to "take advantage of their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses."

In the meantime, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are hosting quantum technology from their competitors, alongside their own, hoping to let customers play around with the tech and come up with uses that haven't yet been imagined. In the same way companies can buy cloud space and digital infrastructure technology from Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud, the tech companies now offer customers pay-as-you-go quantum computing.

"At this stage of the tech, it is important to explore different types of quantum computers," said Nadia Carlsten, former head of product at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing. "It's not clear which computer will be the best of all applicants. It's actually very likely there won't be one that's best."

Dekate, who analyzes the quantum industry for research and consulting firm Gartner, says quantum may have reached the peak of its "hype cycle."

Excitement and funding for the quantum industry has been building he said, pointing to a rising slope on a line graph. Now, it could be at a turning point, he continued, pointing to the spot right before the line graph takes a nosedive.

The hype cycle is a five phase model Gartner uses to analyze new technologies, as a way to help companies and investors decide when to get on board and when to cash out. It takes three to five years to complete the cycle if a new tech makes it through.

Predictive analytics made it to phase five, where users see real-world benefits. Autonomous vehicles are in phase three, where the original excitement wears off and early adopters are running into problems. Quantum computing is in phase two, the peak of expectations, Dekate said.

"For every industry to advance, there needs to be hype. That inspires investment," he said. "What happens in these ecosystems is end-users [like businesses and other enterprises] get carried away by extreme hype."

Some quantum companies are nearing the deadlines they originally set for themselves, while others have already passed theirs. The technology is still at least 10 years away from producing the results businesses are looking for, Dekate estimates. And investors are realizing they won't see profits anytime soon.

In the next phase of the hype cycle, Dekate predicts private investment in quantum computing will go down, public investment will go up in an attempt to make up the difference, and companies that have made promises they can no longer keep will be caught flat-footed. Mergers, consolidation and bankruptcy are likely, he said.

"The kind of macroeconomic dynamics that we're about to enter into, I think means some of these companies might not be able to survive," Dekate said. "The ecosystem is ripe for disruption: way too much fragmentation and companies overpromising and not delivering."

In other words, we could be headed toward a "quantum winter."

But, even during the funding freeze, businesses are increasingly looking for ways to use quantum computing preparing for when the technology is ready, Dekate said. While Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others are developing their quantum computers, companies like BMW, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Boeing are writing their list of problems for the computer to one day solve.

The real changes will come when that loop closes, Dekate said, when the tech is ready and the questions are laid out.

"At some point down the line, the classical [computing] approaches are going to stall, and are going to run into natural limitations," he said. Until then, "quantum computing will elicit excitement and, at the same time, disappointment."

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Microsoft aims to win the race to build a new kind of computer. So does Amazon - Greater Milwaukee Today | GMToday.com

QuantLR Ltd, an Israel-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) company, and MedOne, a leading Israeli data center service provider, have announced the successfuloperationofQuantLRs QKD system with MedOnes Data Centerinfrastructurebetween the cities ofTel Aviv andPetah Tikva.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is the onlyproven technology that provides the ultimate level of security fordata in transit, includingsecurity against any attack or eavesdropping attempts by contemporary, future, classical or quantum-based computers. Another threat that is secured by QKD is a hack now- decrypt later attack where the attacker collects the data now and decrypt in a later stage. This puts a sense of urgency in the implementation of QKD.

This quantum-based technology isespeciallyimportant in a data center environment to secure the information to and from the data center, between data centers, and within the data center itself.

The announcement comes following the recent successful testthat was conducted between the MedOne Tel Aviv and MedOne Petah Tikva facilities, over a distance of more than 35km (21.7 miles). Earlier this year QuantLR managed to exchange keys over longer distances.

The test was led by Dr. Nitzan Livneh, QuantLRs CTO, and Eli Saig, MedOnes CTO.

A single fiber strand was used to carry the quantum information as well as C-band data channels, enabling quantum-safe communication for clients without dark fiber. The system created more than ten 256bit symmetric encryption keys per second, without any flaws.

A QKD solution at an affordable price is critical to solve a major upcoming problem: todays networksecurityrelies on public keycryptographythatishighly vulnerable to cracking. The vast majority of encryption keys in the commercial world are distributed via PKI, but new algorithms and advances in quantum computing will soon provide the capabilities to crack most PKI instances, including RSAand Diffie Hellman methods. This issue is well-known, and Quantum Key Distribution is widely considered the most secure solution for long-term data security, as conventional security solutions approach their end-of-life.

We are delighted to collaborate with a leading data center service provider such as MedOne. Data Centers are a very important use case for QKD and we see an increasing demand from leading players in this market, notesDr. Nitzan Livneh, CTO of QuantLR

Data security has become the most important aspect in a data center offering, and we are planning to be the first data center service provider worldwide that will offer a QKD solution to secure its clients data noted Ronnie Sadeh, CEO of MedOne.

AboutQuantLR:Headquartered in Israel, QuantLRaims to provide versatile cost-effective quantum cryptographic solutions based on quantum key distribution (QKD)technology to protect communicated data. This solution is proven to provide the ultimate level of security against any attack by contemporary, future, classical or quantum-based computers. QuantLRs solutions will be offered to the market as a component embedded within communication hardware vendor products, as well as stand-alone products.

About MedOne:MedOne leads Israels data center market, providing comprehensive hosting services to Israels largest organizations. With several underground data centers spanning over 16,000 square meters (172,000 square feet), MedOne provides hosting, backup and business continuity services with the highest SLA, resiliency and the best standard of security.

QuantLR Contact

Shlomi Cohen, shlomi[at]quantlr.com

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QuantLR Partners With MedOne to Test and Validate a QKD Solution to Protect Against Quantum Computer Attacks - StartupHub.ai

Quantum Computing Inc.

QAmplify Maximizes End-User Investment in Quantum Computing

LEESBURG, Va., June 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI'' or the Company) (NASDAQ: QUBT), a leader in accessible quantum computing, today unveiled QAmplify, a suite of quantum software technologies that expands the processing power of any current quantum computer by as much as 20x. QAmplify is capable of supercharging any quantum computer to solve real-world realistic business problems today. The Company is actively working with customers and partners in scaling the amplification capabilities of its ready-to-run Qatalyst software, which is designed to eliminate the need for complex quantum programming and runs seamlessly across a variety of quantum computers. QCI has filed for patents on QAmplify technology.

Currently there are two primary technology approaches that deliver a wide range of capabilities spanning the current Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) hardware landscape; gate model (e.g. IBM, IonQ, Rigetti, OQC, etc.) and annealing (e.g. D-Wave) quantum computers. Both are limited in the size of problems (i.e., number of variables and complexity of computations) they can process. For example, gate models can typically process from 10-120 data variables, and annealing machines can process approximately 400 variables in a simple problem set. These small problem sets restrict the size of the problems that can be solved by todays QPUs, limiting businesses ability to explore the value of quantum computing.

QCIs patent-pending QAmplify suite of powerful QPU-expansion software technologies overcomes these challenges, dramatically increasing the problem set size that each can process. The QAmplify gate model expansions demonstrated capabilities have been benchmarked at a 500% (5x) increase and the annealing expansion has been benchmarked at up to a 2,000% (20x) increase.

QAmplify maximizes end-user investment in current QPUs by allowing quantum users to transform from science experiments to solving real-world problems without waiting for the quantum hardware industry to catch up. For example, in terms of real-world applications, this means that an IBM quantum computer with QAmplify could solve a problem with over 600 variables, versus the current limit of 127 variables. A D-Wave annealing computer with QAmplify could solve an optimization with over 4,000 variables, versus the current limit of 200 for a dense matrix problem set.

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It is central to QCIs mission to deliver practical and sustainable value to the quantum computing industry, said William McGann, Chief Operating and Technology Officer of QCI. QCIs innovative software solutions deliver expansive compute capabilities for todays state-of-the-art QPU systems and offer great future scalability as those technologies continually advance. The use of our QAmplify algorithm in the 2021 BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge for vehicle sensor optimization provided proof of performance by expanding the effective capability of the annealer by 20-fold, to 2,888 qubits.

To learn more about QCI and how Qatalyst can deliver results for your business today, visit http://www.quantumcomputinginc.com.

About Quantum Computing Inc.Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) (NASDAQ: QUBT) is a full-spectrum quantum software and hardware company on a mission to accelerate the value of quantum computing for real-world business solutions. The company recently announced its intent to acquire QPhoton, a quantum photonics innovation company that has developed a series of quantum photonic systems (QPS). The combination of QCIs flagship ready-to-run software product, Qatalyst, with QPhotons QPS, sets QCI on a path to delivering a broadly accessible and affordable full-stack quantum solution that can be used by non-quantum experts, anywhere, for real-world industry applications. QCIs expert team in finance, computing, security, mathematics and physics has over a century of experience with complex technologies; from leading edge supercomputing, to massively parallel programming, to the security that protects nations. Connect with QCI on LinkedIn and @QciQuantum on Twitter. For more information about QCI, visit http://www.quantumcomputinginc.com.

Important Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. By their nature, forward-looking statements and forecasts involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the near future. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of Quantum Computing Inc. (the Company), and members of its management as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements.

Statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements relating to future events, and as such all forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements may contain certain forward-looking statements pertaining to future anticipated or projected plans, performance and developments, as well as other statements relating to future operations and results. Any statements in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be considered to be forward-looking statements. Words such as "may," "will," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "intends," "goal," "objective," "seek," "attempt," aim to, or variations of these or similar words, identify forward-looking statements. Such statements include statements regarding the Companys ability to consummate its planned acquisition of QPhoton, the anticipated benefits of such acquisition, and the Companys ability to successfully develop, market and sell its products. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, but are not limited to, the parties potential inability to consummate the proposed transaction, including as a result of a failure to satisfy closing conditions to the proposed transactions; risks that QPhoton will not be integrated successfully; failure to realize anticipated benefits of the combined operations; potential litigation relating to the proposed transaction and disruptions from the proposed transaction that could harm the Companys or QPhotons business; ability to retain key personnel; the potential impact of announcement or consummation of the proposed transaction on relationships with third parties, including customers, employees and competitors; conditions in the capital markets; and those risks described in Item 1A in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference, and other factors as may periodically be described in the Companys filings with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed conditions.

Qatalyst is the trademark of Quantum Computing Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Company Contact:Robert Liscouski, CEOQuantum Computing, Inc.+1 (703) 436-2161Email Contact

Investor Relations Contact:Ron Both or Grant StudeCMA Investor Relations+1 (949) 432-7566Email Contact

Media Relations Contact:Seth MenackerFusion Public Relations+1 (201) 638-7561qci@fusionpr.com

Continued here:
Quantum Computing Inc. Unveils Software Breakthrough That Amplifies Quantum Computer Processing Power By Up to 20x - Yahoo Finance

RSA CONFERENCE 2022 Even the most future-facing panels at this year's RSA Conference are grounded in the lessons of the past. At the post-quantum cryptography keynote "Wells Fargo PQC Program: The Five Ws," the moderator evoked the upheaval from RSAC 1999 when a team from Electronic Frontier Foundation and Distributed.net broke the Data Encryption Standard (DES) in less than a day.

"We're trying to avoid the scramble" when classical cryptography techniques like elliptic curve and the RSA algorithm inevitably fall to quantum decrypting, said Sam Phillips, chief architect for information security architecture at Wells Fargo. And he set up the high stakes encryption battles often have: "Where were all the DES implemented? Hint: ATM machines."

"We had to set up teams to see where all we were using[was DES] and then establish the migration plan based upon using a risk-based approach," Phillips said. "We're trying to avoid that by really trying to get ahead of the game and do some planning in this case."

Phillips was joined on stage by Dale Miller, chief architect of information security architecture at Wells Fargo, and Richard Toohey, technology analyst at Wells Fargo.

Toohey, a doctoral candidate at Cornell University, handled most of the technical aspects of quantum computing during the panel.

"For most problems, if you have a quantum calculator and a regular calculator, they can add numbers just as well," he explained. "There's a very small subset of problems that are classically very hard, but for a quantum computer, they can solve [them] very efficiently."

These problems are called np-hard problems.

"A lot of cryptography, specifically in asymmetric cryptography, relies on these np-hard type problems things like elliptic curve cryptography, the RSA algorithm, famously and when quantum computers are developed enough, they'll be able to brute-force their way through these," Toohey explained. "So that breaks a lot of our modern classical cryptography."

The reason why we don't have crypto-breaking quantum computers today, despite headline-making offerings from IBM and others, is because the technology to reach that level of power has not been accomplished yet.

"To become a cryptographically relevant quantum computer, a quantum computer needs to have about 1 to 10 million logical qubits, and those logical qubits all need to be made up of about 1,000 physical qubits," Toohey said. "Today, right now, the largest quantum computers are somewhere around 120 physical qubits."

He estimated that to even muster the first logical qubit will take three years, and from there it has to scale up to "a million or so logical qubits. So it's still quite a few years away."

Another technical challenge that needs solving before we get these powerful quantum computers is the cooling systems they require.

"Qubits are incredibly sensitive; most of them have to be held at very low, cryogenic temperatures," Toohey explained. "So because of that, quantum computing architecture is incredibly expensive right now."

Other problems include decoherence and error correction. The panel agreed that the combination of these issues means crypto-cracking quantum computers are eight to10 years away. But that doesn't mean we have a decade to address PQC.

The panel was named for the journalistic model of five questions that start with the letter "w," but that didn't come up until late in the audience Q&A portion.

"Sam was asking the what, the who, the why, the where, and the when," Miller said. "So I think we've covered that in our conversations here."

Most of the titular questions were somewhat vague and a matter of judgment. However, on the concept of when you should start planning for the post-quantum future, there was complete agreement: Now.

"You've got to start the process now, and you have to move yourself forward so that you are ready when a quantum computer comes along," Miller said.

Phillips concurred.

"There is not right now a quantum computer that is commercially viable, but the amount of money and effort going into the work is there to move it forward, because people recognize the benefits that are there, and we are recognizing the risk," he said. "We feel that it's an eventuality, that we don't know the exact time, and we don't know when it'll happen."

Toohey suggested beginning preparations with a crypto inventory again, now.

"Discover where you have instances of certain algorithms or certain types of cryptography, because how many people were using Log4j and had no idea because it was buried so deep?" he said. "That's a big ask, to know every type of cryptography used throughout your business with all your third parties that's not trivial. That's a lot of work, and that's going to need to be started now."

Wells Fargo has a goal to beready to run post-quantum cryptography in five uears, which Miller described as"a very aggressive goal."

"So the time to start is now," he said,"and that's one of the most important takeaways from this get-together."

Pivoting is a key marker of agility for the panel, and agility is vital for being able to react to not just quantum threats, but whatever comes next.

"The goal here should be crypto agility, where you're able to modify your algorithms fairly quickly across your enterprise and be able to counter a quantum-based attack," Miller said. "And I'm really not thinking on a day-to-day basis about when is the quantum computer going to get here. For us, it's more about laying a path and a track for quantum resiliency for the organization."

Toomey agreed about the importance of agility.

"Whether it's a quantum computer or new developments in classical computing, we don't want to be put in a position where it takes us 10 years to do any kind of cryptographic transition," he said. "We want to be able to pivot and adapt to the market as new threats come out."

Because there will be computers that can break current cryptography techniques, organizations do need to develop new encryption methods that stand up to quantum brute-force attacks. But that's only the half of it.

"Don't just focus on the algorithms," Phillips said. "Start looking at your data. What data are you transiting back and forth? And look at devaluing that data. Where do you need to have that confidential information, and what can you do to remove that from the exposure? It will help a lot not only in the crypto efforts, but in terms of who has access to the data and why they have to have access."

One open question loomed over the discussion: When would NIST announce its picks for the new standards to develop for post-quantum cryptography? The answer: Not yet. But the uncertainty is no cause for inaction, Miller said.

"So NIST will continue to work with other vendors and other companies and research groups to look at algorithms that are further out there," he said. "Our job is to be able to allow those algorithms to come into place quickly, in a very orderly manner, without disrupting business or breaking your business processes and [to] be able to keep things moving along."

Phillips agreed. "That's one of the reasons for pushing on plug and play," he said. "Because we know that the first set of algorithms that come out may not satisfy the long-term need, and we don't want to keep jumping through these hoops every time somebody goes through it."

Toohey tied the standards question back into the concept of preparing now.

"That way, when NIST finally finishes publishing their recommendations, and standards get developed in the coming years, we're ready as an industry to be able to take that and tackle it," he said."That's going back to crypto agility and this mindset that we need to be able to plug and play. We need to be able to pivot as an industry very quickly to new and developing threats."

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Now Is the Time to Plan for Post-Quantum Cryptography - DARKReading

IBM

IBM scientist Andreas Fuhrer looks at the cryogenic refrigerator which keeps a quantum computers qubits super cold.

Peter Griffin is a freelance science and technology writer. He was the founding director of the Science Media Centre and founding editor of Sciblogs.co.nz

OPINION: You have to hand it to the likes of Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrdinger, scientists who were instrumental in developing the field of quantum mechanics about 100 years ago.

They had their work cut out for them trying to explain to a sceptical public the forces that dictate how the world works on the atomic and subatomic scale.

Even Albert Einstein whose own discoveries were towering reference points for these scientists could never reconcile that quantum measurements and observations are fundamentally random.

"It is this view against which my instinct revolts," he wrote in 1945.

READ MORE:* What does Google's Quantum Supremacy actually mean?* World-first experiment introducing atoms to one another may be key to next 'quantum revolution'* Quantum computer a possibility in 10 years* The ultimate geek pilgrimage* A computer 100m times faster than yours

Weve learned much about quantum mechanics since then, including how the principles of superposition and entanglement explain how information can be processed in ways computers like our laptops and smartphones cant match.

Last week I stood for the first time in front of a fully functioning quantum computer, IBMs Quantum System One, at the companys research labs in Yorktown Heights, New York.

The machine looks like a beautiful gold chandelier shrouded in a metal case that creates a vacuum in which the whole device is chilled to just above absolute zero, as cold as outer space.

The highly controlled conditions are required to eliminate interference that could prevent the quantum chip at the tip of the chandelier from doing its thing, which is to activate qubits the quantum version of the bits, the digital ones and zeros our binary computers work with.

IBM, Google, Microsoft and numerous other companies and research institutions have demonstrated how quantum computers are very good at a narrow range of computational tasks, such as simulating nature. Thats already seen them put to work modelling molecules and in the complex field of materials science.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Stuff science columnist Peter Griffin.

Programmers are now working on computer algorithms to expand the ways in which quantum computers can be used. Cryptography experts think large quantum computers could crack existing encryption systems, which would cause a cybersecurity nightmare.

But quantum computers will need to scale up massively in power and be less prone to errors to be useful more broadly. IBM last year produced Eagle, a 127-qubit processor for its quantum computer and plans to introduce Osprey, its 433-qubit chip this year.

Eventually machines with hundreds of thousands or millions of qubits could be available for number crunching on a scale weve never seen before.

It's unlikely youll ever have a quantum computer on your desk or in your garage. Instead, IBM and its rivals rent access to their quantum computers as a cloud computing service.

Todays regular computers arent heading for the dustbin either. They are better at a wide range of tasks and can work in tandem to make quantum computers more useful.

Its unclear whether quantum computing can be properly applied to solving the big problems facing the world new antibiotics or climate change.

But the blistering pace of technical progress suggests it's a field heating up and one worth watching.

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I beheld a quantum computer. It was weird and excellent. - Stuff