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MathWorks, maker of the long-standing MATLAB suite, is focusing its latest software updates on reaching beyond its traditional scientific base and eyeing up autonomous vehicle developers, makers of devices with wireless communications, and others.

MATLAB and Simulink R2022a has "hundreds of new and updated features and functions five new products and 11 major updates," MathWorks said. The news here isn't just about all that stuff. It's also about what MathWorks is trying to do: chase more markets.

MATLAB and Simulink have been mainstays in academic and engineering environments, and the wheelhouse in which those products operate is an aging one. There's no shortage of modeling and simulation software waiting to knock MathWorks from its throne. To that end, this is an update full of features designed in hope of keeping MATLAB and Simulink relevant.

Latest-and-next-generation technologies feature heavily in the five products being added to the MATLAB and Simulink world, such as industrial communication, self-driving vehicles, and wireless technology.

MathWorks' RoadRunner Scenario is an autonomous driving simulator that lets users "placevehiclesand paths, define logic and parameterize scenarios,then simulate the scenarios in theeditor" using vehicles imported from custom designs or pre-populated ones. RoadRunner also has an API that lets users automate the creation of different scenarios and the testing process.

The Wireless Testbench contains reference applications designed to run on off-the-shelf software-defined radio hardware, with applications including data transmission and capturing, spectrum monitoring, and signal analysis.

An Industrial Communication Toolbox has been added that will allow MATLAB and Simulink users to access live and historic industrial data, as well as read, write and log OPC UA data from distributed control systems, PLCs and other industrial hardware.

Also added was a DSP HDL Toolbox for designing digital signal processing apps for FPGAs, ASICs, and SoCs, and a Bluetooth Toolbox for simulating and testing systems using the radio standard.

Several of the "major updates" MathWorks alluded to add what could be seen as essential functions, and are therefore worth a mention.

The MATLAB Compiler SDK is now able to publish MATLAB functions as Docker container microservices, and the Production Server can now map custom request URLs to already-deployed MATLAB functions, as well as serve static content and customize request headers.

Polyspace Access can now identify coding defects, review analysis results and monitor software quality metrics, which are sure to be welcomed capabilities of a code analysis product.And the Simulink Real-Time development computer now has Linux support, and the Signal Processing Toolbox can now pre-process, extract features, and label signals in AI workflows.

For a full rundown of what's changed check out the full R2022a patch notes.

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MATLAB expands to reach self-driving, wireless biz - The Register

Kerem amsari, an assistant professor in UC Santa Barbaras Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, has received a prestigious Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

One of 32 junior faculty nationwide selected by ONR in 2022,amsari will receive a three-year, $510,000 grant in support of his work to design a probabilistic computer to solve computational problems faster and more efficiently.

I feel humbled and honored to receive this award from the Office of Naval Research, said amsari, who joined UCSBs College of Engineering in 2020. This is a very generous amount of funding that will support postdoctorates and graduate students, as well as chip fabrication and the costs of equipment that we will need to carry out this research.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has created a crisis in computing and a significant need for more energy-efficient and scalable hardware. A key step in both AI and ML is making decisions based on incomplete data; the best approach is to output a probability for each possible answer.

Current classical computers are not suited for the energy-efficient execution of these problems, thus intensifying the search for novel approaches to computing.

One solution being pursued by scientists is quantum computers, which are powered by qubits. Unlike the bits that power classical computers and can exist in a state of 0 or 1, a qubit is a two-state system that can be in more than one state at a time.

The phenomenon, known as superposition, enables quantum computers to perform computational functions exponentially faster than classical computers. However, qubits are extremely sensitive to their surroundings and must be kept at very low temperatures, which requires significant amounts of energy.

amsari and his colleagues see a probabilistic computer as another solution that could tackle the computationally difficult problems of AI and ML faster and more efficiently than classical and quantum computers.

In his ONR project, Scalable Probabilistic Computers for Optimization and Quantum Simulation, he aims to develop nanodevice-based probabilistic computers.

In this project, we will investigate the limits of probabilistic computers from hardware, architecture and algorithmic perspectives, said amsari, whose research on probabilistic computers dates back to his days at Purdue University, where he completed his Ph.D. and held a postdoctoral position.

Ultimately, we want to solve computational problems faster, better and more energy-efficiently, he said.

Probabilistic computers are powered by probabilistic bits, or p-bits, which interact with other bits in the same system. Unlike the bits in classical computers that are either 0 or 1 ,and the qubits of quantum computers, which exist in two states, p-bits fluctuate between positions. P-bits do not exhibit superposition and operate at room temperature.

amsari and collaborators during his time at Purdue built a prototype that showed the devices potential, solving the same optimization problems often targeted for quantum computers, while demonstrating a 10-fold reduction in the energy and a 100-fold reduction in the area footprint it required compared to a classical computer.

With seed funding from UCSBs Institute for Energy Efficiency, amsari and Luke Theogarajan, vice chair of UCSBs ECE department, in 2021 began to build a medium-sized probabilistic computer that incorporates complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

The ONR project will allow amsari to significantly expand on that project to determine if probabilistic computers can outperform all known classical methods for solving a set of practical problems, particularly those that are naturally probabilstic.

A fascinating scientific question is just how much of the application space envisioned for quantum computers can be tackled by probabilistic computers, he explained. Their application to classic optimization and machine learning problems can be much more immediate than quantum computers, because probabilistic computers admit a far larger variety of practical implementations.

amsari describes this project as truly interdisciplinary, and says it requires both theoretical and experimental breakthroughs. The immediate focus is solving difficult optimization and quantum simulation tasks by designing cutting-edge probabilistic algorithms, modifying them according to the needs of the underlying hardware, and developing additional prototypes.

The larger vision is to make domain-specific hardware that can connect unique features of materials and devices to corresponding algorithms and applications. In the next era of computing, most of us would agree that this is one of the few ways to make progress, he said.

While this is a very challenging task, our group is uniquely qualified to meet it. We are extremely excited to get started on this journey, he said.

Developing probabilistic computers that solve computational problems faster and more efficiently than the best classical and near-term quantum computers could address problems faced by the Department of Defense, such as supply-chain logistics, traffic optimization, tactical communications and probabilistic-decision making.

ONR, an executive branch agency within the Department of Defense, supports basic and applied research to increase fundamental knowledge, foster breakthroughs and provide technology options for future naval capabilities and systems.

The office also provides technical advice to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy.

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Kerem amsari Wins Junior Faculty Award From Office of Naval Research - Noozhawk

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Postdoctoral researchers who are designated Truman and Hruby fellows experience Sandia National Laboratories differently from their peers.

Appointees to the prestigious fellowships are given the latitude to pursue their own ideas, rather than being trained by fitting into the research plans of more experienced researchers. To give wings to this process, the four annual winners two for each category are 100 percent pre-funded for three years. This enables them, like bishops or knights in chess, to cut across financial barriers, walk into any group and participate in work by others that might help illuminate the research each has chosen to pursue.

The extraordinary appointments are named for former President Harry Truman and former Sandia President Jill Hruby, now the U.S. Department of Energy undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Truman wrote to the president of Bell Labs that he had an opportunity, in Sandias very early days, to perform exceptional service in the national interest. The President Harry S Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineeringcould be said to assert Sandias intention to continue to fulfill Trumans hope.

TheJill Hruby Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineeringoffers the same pay, benefits and privileges as the Truman. It honors former Sandia President Jill Hruby, the first woman to direct a national laboratory. While all qualified applicants will be considered for this fellowship, and its purpose is to pursue independent research to develop advanced technologies to ensure global peace, another aim is to develop a cadre of women in the engineering and science fields who are interested in technical leadership careers in national security.

The selectees are:

2022 Truman Fellows

Alicia Magann: The quantum information science toolkit

Alicia Magann will explore quantum control in the era of quantum computing. (Photo courtesy Alicia Magann)

To help speed the emergence of quantum computers as important research tools, Magann is working to create a quantum information science toolkit. These modeling and simulation algorithms should enable quantum researchers to hit the ground running with meaningful science as quantum computing hardware improves, she says.

At Sandia, she will be working with Sandias quantum computer science department to develop algorithms for quantum computers that can be used to study the control of molecular systems.Her focus will extend aspects of her doctoral research at Princeton University to help explore the possibilities of quantum control in the era of quantum computing.

Im most interested in probing how interactions between light and matter can be harnessed towards new science and technology, Magann said. How well can we control the behavior of complicated quantum systems by shining laser light on them? What kinds of interesting dynamics can we create, and what laser resources do we need?

A big problem, she says, is that its so difficult to explore these questions in much detail on conventional computers. But quantum computers would give us a much more natural setting for doing this computational exploration.

Her mentor, Mohan Sarovar, is an ideal mentor because hes knowledgeable about quantum control and quantum computing the two fields Im connecting with my project.

During her doctoral research, Magann was a DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellow and also served as a graduate intern in Sandias extreme-scale data science and analytics department, where she heard by word of mouth about the Truman and Hruby fellowships. She applied for both and was thrilled to be interviewed and thrilled to be awarded the Truman.

Technical journals in which her work has been published include Quantum, Physical Review A, Physical Review Research, PRX Quantum, and IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. One of her most recent 2021 publications is Digital Quantum Simulation of Molecular Dynamics & Control in Physical Review Research.

Gabriel Shipley: Mitigating instabilities at Sandias Z machine

Gabriel Shipley will investigate 3D instabilities in pulsed-power-driven implosions at Sandias Z machine,(Photo courtesy of Gabe Shipley)

When people mentioned the idea to Gabe Shipley about applying for a Truman fellowship, he scoffed. He hadnt gone to an Ivy League school. He hadnt studied with Nobel laureates. What he had done, by the time he received his doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2021, was work at Sandia for eight years as an undergraduate student intern from 2013 and a graduate student intern since 2015. He wasnt sure that counted.

The candidates for the Truman are rock stars, Shipley told colleague Paul Schmit. When they graduate, theyre offered tenure track positions at universities.

Schmit, himself a former Truman selectee and in this case a walking embodiment of positive reinforcement, advised, Dont sell yourself short.

That was good advice. Shipley needed to keep in mind that as a student, he led 75 shots on Mykonos, a relatively small Sandia pulsed power machine, significantly broadening its use. I was the first person to execute targeted physics experiments on Mykonos, he said. He measured magnetic field production using miniature magnetic field probes and optically diagnosed dielectric breakdown in the target.

He used the results to convince management to let him lead seven shots on Sandias premier Z machine, an expression of confidence rarely bestowed upon a student. I got amazing support from colleagues, he said. These are the best people in the world.

Among them is theoretical physicist Steve Slutz, who theorized that a magnetized target, preheated by a laser beam, would intensify the effect of Zs electrical pulse to produce record numbers of fusion reactions. Shipley has worked to come up with physical solutions that would best embody that theory.

With Sandia physicist Thomas Awe, he developed methods that may allow researchers to scrap external structures called Helmholtz coils to provide magnetic fields and instead create them using only an invented architecture that takes advantage of Zs own electrical current.

His Truman focus investigating the origins and evolution of 3D instabilities in pulsed-power-driven implosions would ameliorate a major problem with Z pinches if what he finds proves useful. Instabilities have been recognized since at least the 1950s as weakening pinch effectiveness. They currently limit the extent of compression and confinement achievable in the fusion fuel. Mitigating their effect would be a major achievement for everyone at Z and a major improvement for every researcher using those facilities.

Shipley has authored articles in the journal Physics of Plasmas and provided invited talks at the Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics and the 9thFundamental Science with Pulsed Power: Research Opportunities and User Meeting. His most recent publication in Physics of Plasmas, Design of Dynamic Screw Pinch Experiments for Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion, represents another attempt to increase Z machine output.

Sommer Johansen: Wheres the nitrogen?

Sommer Johansen aims to improve models showing how burning bio-derived fuels affect ecology and forest fires caused by climate change . (Photo courtesy of Sommer Johansen)

Sommer Johansen received her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California, Davis, where her thesis involved going backward in time to explore the evolution of prebiotic molecules in the form of cyclic nitrogen compounds; her time machine consisted of combining laboratory spectroscopy and computational chemistry to learn how these molecules formed during the earliest stages of our solar system.

Cyclic nitrogen-containing organic molecules are found on meteorites, but we have not directly detected them in space. So how were they formed and why havent we found where that happens? she asked.

That work, funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, formed the basis of publications in The Journal of Physical Chemistry and resulted in the inaugural Lewis E. Snyder Astrochemistry Award at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy. The work also was the subject of an invited talk she gave at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Stars & Planets Seminar in 2020.

At Sandia, she intends to come down to Earth, both literally and metaphorically, by experimenting at Sandias Combustion Research Facility in Livermore on projects of her own design.

She hopes to help improve comprehensive chemical kinetics models of the after-effects on Earths planetary ecology of burning bio-derived fuels and the increasingly severe forest fires caused by climate change.

Every time you burn something that was alive, nitrogen-containing species are released, she says. However, the chemical pathways of organic nitrogen-containing species are vastly under-represented in models of combustion and atmospheric chemistry, she says. We need highly accurate models to make accurate predictions. For example, right now it isnt clear how varying concentrations of different nitrogenated compounds within biofuels could affect efficiency and the emission of pollutants, she said.

Johansen will be working with the gas-phase chemical physics department, studying gas-phase nitrogen chemistry at Sandias Livermore site under the mentorship of Lenny Sheps and Judit Zdor. UC Davis is close to Livermore, and the Combustion Research Facility there was always in the back of my mind. I wanted to go there, use the best equipment in the world and work with some our fields smartest people.

She found particularly attractive that the Hruby fellowship not only encouraged winners to work on their own projects but also had a leadership and professional development component to help scientists become well-rounded. Johansen had already budgeted time outside lab work at UC Davis, where for five years she taught or helped assistants teach a workshop for incoming graduate students on the computer program Python. We had 30 people a year participating, until last year (when we went virtual) and had 150.

The program she initiated, she says, became a permanent fixture in my university.

Alex Downs: Long-lived wearable biosensors

As Alex Downs completed her doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in August 2021, she liked Sandia on LinkedIn. The Hruby postdoc listing happened to show up, she said, and it interested her. She wanted to create wearable biosensors for long duration, real-time molecular measurements of health markers that would be an ongoing measurement of a persons well-being. This would lessen the need to visit doctors offices and labs for evaluations that were not only expensive but might not register the full range of a persons illness.

Alex Downs hopes to create wearable biosensors that gather molecular measurements from health markers. (Photo courtesy of Alex Downs)

Her thesis title was Electrochemical Methods for Improving Spatial Resolution, Temporal Resolution, and Signal Accuracy of Aptamer Biosensors.

She thought, Theres a huge opportunity here for freedom to explore my research interests. I can bring my expertise in electrochemistry and device fabrication and develop new skills working with microneedles and possibly other sensing platforms. That expertise is needed because a key problem with wearable biosensors is that in the body, they degrade. To address this, Downs wants to study the stability of different parts of the sensor interface when its exposed to bodily fluids, like blood.

I plan not only to make the sensors longer lasting by improved understanding of how the sensors are impacted by biofouling in media, I will also investigate replacing the monolayers used in the present sensor design with new, more fouling resistant monolayers, she said.

The recognition element for this type of biosensor are aptamers strands of DNA that bind specifically to a given target, such as a small molecule or protein. When you add a reporter to an aptamer sequence and put it down on a conductive surface, you can measure target binding to the sensor as a change in electrochemical signal, she said.

The work fits well with Sandias biological and chemical sensors team, and when Downs came to Sandia in October, she was welcomed with coffee and donuts from her mentor Ronen Polsky, an internationally recognized expert in wearable microneedle sensors. Polsky introduced her to other scientists, told her of related projects and discussed research ideas.

Right now, meeting with people all across the Labs has been helpful, she said. Later, I look forward to learning more about the Laboratory Directed Research and Development review process, going to Washington, D.C. and learning more about how science policy works. But right now, Im mainly focused on setting up a lab to do the initial experiments for developing microneedle aptamer-based sensors, Downs said.

source: Sandia National Laboratories

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Truman and Hruby 2022 Fellows at Sandia Explore Their Possibilities - insideHPC - insideHPC

Graduate student co-chairs Jatin Patil and Kruthika Kikkeri had big plans for the 18th annual Microsystems Annual Research Conference (MARC) in January 2022: After last years all-virtual event, students, faculty, staff, and industry partners would again be able to gather in person to chart the future of microsystems and nanotechnology.

Then the pandemic took another turn. As the Omicron variant surged and with only three weeks to pivot, Kikkeri and Patil led the 16-person MARC student committee to redirect efforts swapping campus event space for an online platform, physical poster displays for digital, live research talks for prerecorded presentations, and social gatherings for virtual trivia.

We are so thankful to have had such a flexible and dedicated team who made this all happen, says Patil, a PhD candidate in the research group of Professor Jeffrey Grossman in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). Everyone came together to shift gears and take on new responsibilities, despite having their own academic projects to maintain.

In addition to Kikkeri and Patil, the core planning group included Maitreyi Ashok, Will Banner, Jaehwan Kim, Rishabh Mittal, and Nili Persits from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Narumi Wong from chemical engineering.

The pivot ended up setting records. MARC attracted 262 attendees, the most ever for the long-standing event co-sponsored by the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) and MIT.nano. In addition, more than 100 student abstracts were presented from 37 MIT research groups, two more record-breaking statistics.

We were delighted to see such high numbers of participation, says Kikkeri, a PhD candidate in the research group of Professor Joel Voldman in EECS. It was energizing to see our community so engaged, particularly during these isolating times.

MARC is like a crystal ball.

Every January, MARC aims to accomplish several goals: highlight scientific achievements of the past year, look to the next set of challenges, and create opportunities for collaboration among MIT students, faculty, and industry partners. MARC 2022 proved to be no different.

We can build a better tomorrow, together, said MIT.nano Director Vladimir Bulovi, the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Chair in Emerging Technology, in his opening remarks. The projects you hear about today are shaping what the future will be. MARC is like a crystal ball. Every year we get a glimpse at what is coming our way.

Research presentations spanned nine topics: integrated circuits; electronic devices; power; energy-efficient AI; optics, photonics, and magnetics; quantum; medical and biological technologies; materials and manufacturing; and nanostructures and nanomaterials. Each category was carefully curated by one of eight EECS graduate student session chairs: Ruicong Chen, Isaac Harris, Thomas Krause, Wei Liao, Sarah Muschinske, Milica Notaros, Kaidong Peng, and Abigail Zhien Wang.

I am, once again, blown away by the incredible array of mind-boggling research represented by the student posters and pitches at this years MARC, says MTL Director Hae-Seung Lee, professor of electrical engineering and computer science. It makes me so proud to be part of this community.

Fostering a strong research community is an important component of MARC, which includes attendance by members of MTLs Microsystems Industrial Group (MIG) and MIT.nanos Consortium. Concerned that opportunities for organic networking would be lacking in a virtual setting, Kikkeri and Patil added a structured segment for students and company representatives to discuss research collaborations, internships, and full-time opportunities. This new block featured more than 20 one-on-one meetings.

Education to fuel future advancements

Each day opened with a keynote lecture touching on the future of nanoscience and microsystems technology. Professor Tsu-Jae King Liu, the Dean and Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, delivered the first talk on alternative approaches to transistor scaling, discussing the need for new innovations across materials, processes, devices, and chip architecture.

Liu also addressed the current shortage of workers in the semiconductor industry, stressing the importance of education and encouraging collaboration between academia, industry, and government. We all need to work together to revitalize the curriculum for microelectronics, she said. Hands-on training in the clean room is invaluable for preparing students to work efficiently in semiconductor manufacturing.

On the second day, Jay M. Gambetta, IBM fellow and vice president of IBM Quantum, spoke about the current state of quantum computing technologies and gave his thoughts on the next set of inventions, in which he sees scientists pushing what can be done with a single chip to create new systems to accelerate workloads. He also stressed the importance of education, saying universities can play a role by giving students a flavor of both computer science and physics. How we bring these two areas together is where were going to see a lot of innovation in the near future, he said.

Interspersed between keynotes, prerecorded student pitches, and live poster sessions hosted on the virtual platform Gather, MIT faculty joined three technical panels highlighting current work in their research groups and sharing thoughts on the future of their fields. Panelists included School of Engineering Dean and Vannevar Bush Professor Anantha Chandrakasan, Donner Professor of Engineering Jess del Alamo, Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor David Perreault, Robert J. Shillman (1974) CD Assistant Professor Song Han, EECS Assistant Professor Jelena Notaros, EECS and Department of Physics Professor William Oliver, EECS Assistant Professor Sixian You, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering Professor Bilge Yildiz, and Assistant Professor Deblina Sarkar of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

In their closing remarks, Lee and Bulovi congratulated the student committee on another successful MARC and spoke of future opportunities for collaboration.

MARC is coming to a close, but we are just beginning the next set of great ideas, said Bulovi. MIT.nano is proud to be your home; the place where you can do your best work and then take it to the intellectual center of MTL to further hone it in collaboration with colleagues.

This was a professional-level conference, said Lee. The core committee, session chairs, and panel moderators have done a superb job. With several large opportunities ahead of us, we are excited to engage many of you together in the near future.

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Last-minute pivot leads to record-setting Microsystems Annual Research Conference - MIT News

Quantum computing is a new generation of technology that involves a type of computer 158 million times faster than the most sophisticated supercomputer we have in the world today. It is a device so powerful that it could do in four minutes what it would take a traditional supercomputer 10,000 years to accomplish.

For decades, our computers have all been built around the same design. Whether it is the huge machines at NASA, or your laptop at home, they are all essentially just glorified calculators, but crucially they can only do one thing at a time.

The key to the way all computers work is that they process and store information made of binary digits called bits. These bits only have two possible values, a one or a zero. It is these numbers that create binary code, which a computer needs to read in order to carry out a specific task, according to the book Fundamentals of Computers.

Quantum theory is a branch of physics which deals in the tiny world of atoms and the smaller (subatomic) particles inside them, according to the journal Documenta Mathematica. When you delve into this minuscule world, the laws of physics are very different to what we see around us. For instance, quantum particles can exist in multiple states at the same time. This is known as superposition.

Instead of bits, quantum computers use something called quantum bits, 'qubits' for short. While a traditional bit can only be a one or a zero, a qubit can be a one, a zero or it can be both at the same time, according to a paper published from IEEE International Conference on Big Data.

This means that a quantum computer does not have to wait for one process to end before it can begin another, it can do them at the same time.

Imagine you had lots of doors which were all locked except for one, and you needed to find out which one was open. A traditional computer would keep trying each door, one after the other, until it found the one which was unlocked. It might take five minutes, it might take a million years, depending on how many doors there were. But a quantum computer could try all the doors at once. This is what makes them so much faster.

As well as superposition, quantum particles also exhibit another strange behaviour called entanglement which also makes this tech so potentially ground-breaking. When two quantum particles are entangled, they form a connection to each other no matter how far apart they are. When you alter one, the other responds the same way even if they're thousands of miles apart. Einstein called this particle property "spooky action at a distance", according to the journal Nature.

As well as speed, another advantage quantum computers have over traditional computers is size. According to Moore's Law, computing power doubles roughly every two years, according to the journal IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. But in order to enable this, engineers have to fit more and more transistors onto a circuit board. A transistor is like a microscopic light switch which can be either off or on. This is how a computer processes a zero or a one that you find in binary code.

To solve more complex problems, you need more of those transistors. But no matter how small you make them there's only so many you can fit onto a circuit board. So what does that mean? It means sooner or later, traditional computers are going to be as smart as we can possibly make them, according to the Young Scientists Journal. That is where quantum machines can change things.

The quest to build quantum computers has turned into something of a global race, with some of the biggest companies and indeed governments on the planet vying to push the technology ever further, prompting a rise in interest in quantum computing stocks on the money markets.

One example is the device created by D-Wave. It has built the Advantage system which it says is the first and only quantum computer designed for business use, according to a press release from the company.

D-wave said it has been designed with a new processor architecture with over 5,000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity, which it said enables companies to solve their largest and most complex business problems.

The firm claims the machine is the first and only quantum computer that enables customers to develop and run real-world, in-production quantum applications at scale in the cloud. The firm said the Advantage is 30 times faster and delivers equal or better solutions 94% of the time compared to its previous generation system.

But despite the huge, theoretical computational power of quantum computers, there is no need to consign your old laptop to the wheelie bin just yet. Conventional computers will still have a role to play in any new era, and are far more suited to everyday tasks such as spreadsheets, emailing and word processing, according to Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI).

Where quantum computing could really bring about radical change though is in predictive analytics. Because a quantum computer can make analyses and predictions at breakneck speeds, it would be able to predict weather patterns and perform traffic modelling, things where there are millions if not billions of variables that are constantly changing.

Standard computers can do what they are told well enough if they are fed the right computer programme by a human. But when it comes to predicting things, they are not so smart. This is why the weather forecast is not always accurate. There are too many variables, too many things changing too quickly for any conventional computer to keep up.

Because of their limitations, there are some computations which an ordinary computer may never be able to solve, or it might take literally a billion years. Not much good if you need a quick prediction or piece of analysis.

But a quantum computer is so fast, almost infinitely so, that it could respond to changing information quickly and examine a limitless number of outcomes and permutations simultaneously, according to research by Rigetti Computing.

Quantum computers are also relatively small because they do not rely on transistors like traditional machines. They also consume comparatively less power, meaning they could in theory be better for the environment.

You can read about how to get started in quantum computing in this article by Nature. To learn more about the future of quantum computing, you can watch this TED Talk by PhD student Jason Ball.

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Quantum computing: Definition, facts & uses - Livescience.com