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The quest to build the ultimate computer has taken a big step forward following breakthroughs in ensuring its answers can be trusted.

Known as a quantum computer, such a machine exploits bizarre effects in the sub-atomic world to perform calculations beyond the reach of conventional computers.

First proposed almost 40 years ago, tech giants Microsoft, Google and IBM are among those racing to exploit the power of quantum computing, which is expected to transform fields ranging from weather forecasting and drug design to artificial intelligence.

The power of quantum computers comes from their use of so-called qubits, the quantum equivalent of the 1s and 0s bits used by conventional number-crunchers.

Unlike bits, qubits exploit a quantum effect allowing them to be both 1s and 0s at the same time. The impact on processing power is astonishing. Instead of processing, say, 100 bits in one go, a quantum computer could crunch 100 qubits, equivalent to 2 to the power 100, or a million trillion trillion bits.

At least, that is the theory. The problem is that the property of qubits that gives them their abilities known as quantum superposition is very unstable.

Once created, even the slightest vibration, temperature shift or electromagnetic signal can disturb the qubits, causing errors in calculations. Unless the superposition can be maintained long enough, the quantum computer either does a few calculations well or a vast amount badly.

For years, the biggest achievement of any quantum computer involved using a few qubits to find the prime factors of 15 (which every schoolchild knows are 3 and 5).

Using complex shielding methods, researchers can now stabilise around 50 qubits long enough to perform impressive calculations.

Last October, Google claimed to have built a quantum computer that solved in 200 seconds a maths problem that would have taken an ultra-fast conventional computer more than 10,000 years.

Yet even this billion-fold speed-up is just a shadow of what would be possible if qubits could be kept stable for longer. At present, many of the qubits have their powers wasted being used to spot and fix errors.

Now two teams of researchers have independently found new ways of tackling the error problem.

Physicists at the University of Chicago have found a way of keeping qubits stable for longer not by blocking disturbances, but by blurring them.

It is like sitting on a merry-go-round with people yelling all around you

Dr Kevin Miao, computing expert

In some quantum computers, the qubits take the form of electrons whose direction of spin is a superposition of both up and down. By adding a constantly flipping magnetic field, the team found that the electrons rotated so quickly that they barely noticed outside disturbances. The researchers explain the trick with an analogy: It's like sitting on a merry-go-round with people yelling all around you, says team member Dr Kevin Miao. When the ride is still, you can hear them perfectly, but if you're rapidly spinning, the noise blurs into a background.

Describing their work in the journal Science, the team reported keeping the qubits working for about 1/50th of a second - around 10,000 times longer than their lifetime if left unshielded. According to the team, the technique is simple to use but effective against all the standard sources of disturbance. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Sydney have come up with an algorithm that allows a quantum computer to work out how its qubits are being affected by disturbances and fix the resulting errors. Reporting their discovery in Nature Physics, the team says their method is ready for use with current quantum computers, and could work with up to 100 qubits.

These breakthroughs come at a key moment for quantum computing. Even without them, the technology is already spreading beyond research laboratories.

In June, the title of worlds most powerful quantum computer was claimed not by a tech giant but by Honeywell a company perhaps best known for central heating thermostats.

Needless to say, the claim is contested by some, not least because the machine is reported to have only six qubits. But Honeywell points out that it has focused its research on making those qubits ultra-stable which allows them to work reliably for far longer than rival systems. Numbers of qubits alone, in other words, are not everything.

And the company insists this is just the start. It plans to boost the performance of its quantum computer ten-fold each year for the next five years, making it 100,000 times more powerful still.

But apart from bragging rights, why is a company like Honeywell trying to take on the tech giants in the race for the ultimate computer ?

A key clue can be found in remarks made by Honeywell insiders to Forbes magazine earlier this month. These reveal that the company wants to use quantum computers to discover new kinds of materials.

Doing this involves working out how different molecules interact together to form materials with the right properties. Thats something conventional computers are already used for. But quantum computers wont just bring extra number-crunching power to bear. Crucially, like molecules themselves, their behaviour reflects the bizarre laws of quantum theory. And this makes them ideal for creating accurate simulations of quantum phenomena like the creation of new materials.

This often-overlooked feature of quantum computers was, in fact, the original motivation of the brilliant American physicist Richard Feynman, who first proposed their development in 1981.

Honeywell already has plans to use quantum computers to identify better refrigerants. These compounds were once notorious for attacking the Earths ozone layer, but replacements still have unwanted environmental effects. Being relatively simple chemicals, the search for better refrigerants is already within the reach of current quantum computers.

But Honeywell sees a time when far more complex molecules such as drugs will also be discovered using the technology.

For the time being, no quantum computer can match the all-round number-crunching power of standard computers. Just as Honeywell made its claim, the Japanese computer maker Fujitsu unveiled a supercomputer capable of over 500 million billion calculations a second.

Even so, the quantum computer is now a reality and before long it will make even the fastest supercomputer seem like an abacus.

Robert Matthews is Visiting Professor of Science at Aston University, Birmingham, UK

Updated: August 21, 2020 12:06 PM

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Has the world's most powerful computer arrived? - The National

Computers have underpinned the digital transformation of the banking and financial services sector, and quantum computing promises to elevate this transformation to a radically new level. BBVA, the digital bank for the 21st centuryestablished in 1857 and today the second largest bank in Spainis at the forefront of investigating the benefits of quantum computing.

Will quantum computing move banking to a new level of digital transformation?

We are trying to understand the potential impact of quantum computing over the next 5 years, says Carlos Kuchkovsky, global head of research and patents at BBVA. Last month, BBVA announced initial results from their recent exploration of quantum computings advantage over traditional computer methods. Kuchkovskys team looked at complex financial problems with many dimensions or variables that require computational calculations that sometimes take days to complete. In the case of investment portfolio optimization, for example, they found that the use of quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms could represent a significant speed-up compared to traditional techniques when there are more than 100 variables.

Carlos Kuchkovsky, Global Head of Research and Patents, BBVA

After hiring researchers with expertise in quantum computing, BBVA identified fifteen challenges that could be solved better with quantum computing, faster and with greater accuracy, says Kuchkovsky. The results released last month were for six of these challenges, serving as proofs-of-concept for, first and foremost, the development of quantum algorithms and also for their application in the following five financial services tasks: Static and dynamic portfolio optimization, credit scoring process optimization, currency arbitrage optimization, and derivative valuations and adjustments.

Another important dimension of BBVAs quantum computing journey is developing an external network. The above six proofs-of-concept were pursued in collaboration with external partners bringing to the various investigations their own set of skills and expertise: The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the startups Zapata Computing and Multiverse, the technology firm Fujitsu, and the consulting firm Accenture.

Kuchkovsky advises technology and business executives in other companies, in any industry, to follow BBVAs initial stepssurveying the current state of the technology and the major players, developing internal expertise and experience with quantum computing and consolidating the internal team, identifying specific business problems, activities and opportunities where quantum computing could provide an advantage over todays computers, and develop an external network by connecting to and collaborating with relevant research centers and companies.

As for how to organize internally for quantum computing explorations, Kuchkovsky thinks there could be different possibilities, depending on the level of maturity of the research and technology functions of the business. In BBVAs case, the effort started in the research function and he thinks will evolve in a year or two to a full-fledged quantum computing center of excellence.

Quantum computing is evolving rapidly and Kuchkovsky predicts that in five years, companies around the world will enjoy full access to quantum computing as a service and will benefit from the application of quantum algorithms, also provided as a service. Specifically, he thinks we will see the successful application of quantum computing to machine learning (e.g., improving fraud detection in the banking sector). With the growing interest in quantum computing, Kuchkovsky believes that in five years there will be a sufficient supply of quantum computing talent to satisfy the demand for quantum computing expertise.

The development of a talent pool of experienced and knowledgeable quantum computing professionals depends among other things on close working relationships between academia and industry. These relationships tend to steer researchers towards practical problems and specific business challenges and, in turn, helps in upgrading the skills of engineers working in large corporations and orient them toward quantum computing.

In Kuchocvskys estimation, the connection between academia and industry is relatively weaker in Europe compared to the United States. But there are examples of such collaboration, such as BBVAs work with CSIC and the European Unions Quantum Technologies Flagship, bringing together research centers, industry, and public funding agencies.

On July 29, Fujitsu announced a new collaboration with BBVA, to test whether a quantum computer could outperform traditional computing techniques in optimizing asset portfolios, helping minimize risk while maximizing returns, based on a decades worth of historical data. In the release, Kuchkovsky summarized BBVAs motivation for exploring quantum computing: Our research is helping us identify the areas where quantum computing could represent a greater competitive advantage, once the tools have sufficiently matured. At BBVA, we believe that quantum technology will be key to solving some of the major challenges facing society this decade. Addressing these challenges dovetails with BBVAs strategic priorities, such as fostering the more efficient use of increasingly greater volumes of data for better decision-making as well as supporting the transition to a more sustainable future.

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BBVA Uncovers The Promise Of Quantum Computing For Banking And Financial Services - Forbes

A DigiCert study found that 55% of business Information Technology (IT) specialists are concerned about the impact of quantum computing on cryptography. The company explained in a statement that 71% consider this technology to be a threat in the future and many have heard of quantum computing, but few know what it is.

Although it is a technology that is not widely used, physicists have been talking about quantum computing for more than 30 years. But how can this new computing help? Quantum computing will fundamentally increase processing power, which could mean exciting advances from particle physics to machine learning to medical science, he noted. He added that companies can prepare for and anticipate the challenges that quantum computing poses, increasing the crypto-agility that identifies and replaces outdated cryptographic algorithms when necessary. Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) can also be identified to protect custom keys that are used in your public key infrastructure (PKI).

That is why it is important for companies to investigate how they are being used, if they can be upgraded to support quantum security encryption and, if so, how quickly those upgrades could occur, he said. He recommended relying on SSL / TLS certificates that allow website visitors to know that it is authentic and that the data they enter will be encrypted. An important approach to preparing for post-quantum cryptographic threats is to gain encryption agility. A properly implemented AOSSL makes it easy to update encryption algorithms in response to future threats from quantum computing, said Avesta Hojjati, Director of I + D from DigiCert.

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Concerns about the impact of quantum computing on cryptography, . - Explica

In the curious world of quantum mechanics, a single atom or subatomic particle can exist simultaneously in multiple conditions. A new UC-led, multiuniversity institute will explore the realities of this emerging field as it focuses on advancing quantum science and engineering, with an additional goal of training a future workforce to build and use quantum computers.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $25 million over five years to establish the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute (QLCI) for Present and Future Quantum Computation as part of the federal governments effort to speed the development of quantum computers. The institute will work to overcome scientific challenges to achieving quantum computing and will design advanced, large-scale quantum computers that employ state-of-the-art scientific algorithms developed by the researchers.

There is a sense that we are on the precipice of a really big move toward quantum computing, said Dan Stamper-Kurn, UC Berkeley professor of physics and director of the institute. We think that the development of the quantum computer will be a real scientific revolution, the defining scientific challenge of the moment, especially if you think about the fact that the computer plays a central role in just about everything society does. If you have a chance to revolutionize what a computer is, then you revolutionize just about everything else.

Unlike conventional computers, quantum computers seek to harness the mysterious behavior of particles at the subatomic level to boost computing power. Once fully developed, they could be capable of solving large, extremely complex problems far beyond the capacity of todays most powerful supercomputers. Quantum systems are expected to have a wide variety of applications in many fields, including medicine, national security and science.

Theoretical work has shown that quantum computers are the best way to do some important tasks: factoring large numbers, encrypting or decrypting data, searching databases or finding optimal solutions for problems. Using quantum mechanical principles to process information offers an enormous speedup over the time it takes to solve many computational problems on current digital computers.

Scientific problems that would take the age of the universe to solve on a standard computer potentially could take only a few minutes on a quantum computer, said Eric Hudson, a UCLA professor of physics and co-director of the new institute. We may get the ability to design new pharmaceuticals to fight diseases on a quantum computer, instead of in a laboratory. Learning the structure of molecules and designing effective drugs, each of which has thousands of atoms, are inherently quantum challenges. A quantum computer potentially could calculate the structure of molecules and how molecules react and behave.

The project came to fruition, in part, thanks to a UC-wide consortium, the California Institute for Quantum Entanglement, funded by UCs Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives (MRPI).The MRPI funding opportunity incentivizes just this kind of multicampus collaboration in emerging fields that can position UC as a national leader.

This new NSF institute is founded on the outstanding research contributions in theoretical and experimental quantum information science achieved by investigators from across the UC system through our initiative to foster multicampus collaborations, said Theresa Maldonado, Ph.D., vice president for Research and Innovation of the University of California. The award recognizes the teams vision of how advances in computational quantum science can reveal new fundamental understanding of phenomena at the tiniest length-scale that can benefit innovations in artificial intelligence, medicine, engineering, and more. We are proud to lead the nation in engaging excellent students from diverse backgrounds into this field of study.

The QLCI for Present and Future Quantum Computation connects UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara with five other universities around the nation and in California. The institute will draw on a wealth of knowledge from experimental and theoretical quantum scientists to improve and determine how best to use todays rudimentary quantum computers, most of them built by private industry or government labs. The goal, ultimately, is to make quantum computers as common as mobile phones, which are, after all, pocket-sized digital computers.

The institute will be multidisciplinary, spanning physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, and optical and electrical engineering, among other fields, and will include scientists and engineers with expertise in quantum algorithms, mechanics and chemistry. They will partner with outside institutions, including in the emerging quantum industry, and will host symposia, workshops and other programs. Research challenges will be addressed jointly through a process that incorporates both theory and experiment.

Situated near the heart of todays computer industry, Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach, and at major California universities and national labs, the institute will train a future workforce akin to the way computer science training at universities fueled Silicon Valleys rise to become a tech giant. UCLA will pilot a masters degree program in quantum science and technology to train a quantum-smart workforce, while massive online courses, or MOOCs, will help spread knowledge and understanding of quantum computers even to high school students.

This center establishes California as a leader nationally and globally in quantum computing, Stamper-Kurn said.

The institutes initial members are all senior faculty from UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, the University of Washington and the University of Texas at Austin.

We still do not know fully what quantum computers do well, Stamper-Kurn said, and we face deep challenges that arise in scaling up quantum devices. The mission of this institute is to address fundamental challenges in the development of the quantum computer.

More information on NSF-supported research on quantum information science and engineering is available at nsf.gov/quantum.

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New UC-led institute awarded $25M to explore potential of quantum computing and train a future workforce - University of California

PQShield, a spin-out from the UK's Oxford University, is developing advanced cryptographic solutions for hardware, software and communications to protect businesses' data from the quantum threat.

The development of quantum computers poses a cybersecurity problem such as the IT industry has never seen before. All stored data currently deemed secure by modern standards whether that's health records, financial data, customer databases and even critical government infrastructure could, in theory, be cracked by quantum computers, which are capable of effectively short circuiting the encryption we've used to protect that data until now.

Efforts to protect our data from the quantum threat are underway, though whether the issue is being looked at with the urgency it deserves is up for debate. PQShield, a post-quantum cryptography startup spun out of Oxford University, perceives a disconnect between the scale of the threat and the current cyber-readiness of most businesses in 2020, which it is now trying to address.

SEE: Quantum computing: Myths v. Realities (TechRepublic)

"The scale of the quantum attack is just too big to imagine," Dr. Ali Kaafarani, research fellow at Oxford's Mathematical Institute and founder of PQShield, tells TechRepublic.

"The most important part of what we're doing is to educate the market."

Kaafarani is a former engineer at Hewlett-Packard Labs and leads a team of 10 full-time quantum cryptographers, from what he estimates to be a worldwide pool of just a hundred or so. The company is busy working on the development of quantum-secure cryptography encryption solutions for hardware, software and communications that will secure information from future risk, yet can be implemented using today's technology.

This comprises a system on chip (SoC) and software development kit that allow companies to create secure messaging applications, protected by a "post-quantum" variant of the Signal cryptographic protocol. Central to PQShield's technology is that it is designed to work with both legacy systems as well as those expected in the years to come, meaning it could offer protection for everything from keyless cars and other connected devices, to data moving to and from cloud servers.

This, Kaafarani explains, is important owing to the fact that post-quantum cryptography cannot be retrospectively implemented meanwhile data encrypted by modern standards remains open to post-quantum threats. "What we're using right now as end-to-end encryption...is secure now, but people can intercept them and steal encrypted data," he says.

"Once they have access to a quantum computer, they can decrypt them, so confidentiality is threatened in retrospect, because whatever is considered confidential now can be decrypted later on."

Kaafarani also perceives an issue with the current attitudes to remediating cyberattacks, which he likens to applying a band-aid to a repeating problem.

SEE: SSL Certificate Best Practices Policy (TechRepublic Premium)

"That's why we started PQShield to fill in this gap, to lead the way to a smooth and secure transition to the quantum era. There is a real opportunity here to get things right from the beginning."

The startup recently completed a 5.5m funding round led by VC Firm Kindred Capital and has now secured German engineering company Bosch as its first OEM customer. While the exact details of the deal are still under wraps, Kaafarani says the deal is indicative of the threats businesses are beginning to identify as the age of quantum computing approaches.

"Their hardware may be built to last, but right now, their security isn't," he says.

"If you're designing a car that's going to go on the roads in the next three years, if you're doing security by design, you should be thinking of the next security standards: not the standards that are valid now, but the standards that will be valid in the next five, 10, 15 years," he says.

"Future-proofing is an imperative, just as it is for the banks and agencies that hold so much of our sensitive data."

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The future of encryption: Getting ready for the quantum computer attack - TechRepublic