The machine is based in Germany

Mar 31, 2010 09:16 GMT  ·  By
Qubits can exist in two or more states at the same time, thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics
   Qubits can exist in two or more states at the same time, thanks to the laws of quantum mechanics

The IBM-built Julich Blue Gene supercomputer, dubbed JUGENE, has recently been rendered capable of conducting simulations of quantum computers. This is a massive breakthrough in the field, since it has been plagued by logistic and technological problems for a long time. Developing a quantum computer has been a long-standing goal in physics, and researchers have been trying to develop quantum processors for many years. Thus far, the only ones produced have had only a few bits of computational power, and they can only be made at a very small scale. But, with the recent advancements recorded at the JUGENE, simulating their action will make research a lot easier, experts say.

Quantum computers hold great promise for making electronics run faster, smoother, at lower temperatures, and with an increased efficiency. Computers based on these properties would have a power considerably higher than that of any similar devices in existence today. Once created, they will be used for developing and breaking code, coming up with new encryptions for communications, and also for solving currently intractable mathematical problems. Simulations of the individual motions of numerous atoms will also become possible. At this point, simulating the interactions between five or more atoms becomes impossible even for the most advanced supercomputers.

What JUGENE will do is simulate the way the basic components of a quantum system, called quantum bits, or qubits, will interact with each other. These units function on the principles of superposition and entanglement, which means that they can basically be made to exist in two separate states at the same time, while maintaining coherence. The quantum computer that the JUGENE system can simulate features 42 bits, which means that it's the largest possible until now. Existing prototypes have only been produced with two or four qubits, but never over ten units.

“The computing power of a quantum computer grows exponentially with its size. This is both an enormous opportunity for future applications and also a great challenge for simulations at the moment,” Julich Supercomputing Center expert Professor Dr. Kristel Michielsen explains. The system the German team will base its investigations on features no less then 300,000 processors, and boasts a computing power of no less than 1,015 floating point operations per second. This makes it the largest, most advanced supercomputer in Europe, the team says.

“If so many processors have to work together then in the case of simple algorithms it can easily happen that processors are waiting for each other and thus performance is lost. Our software is optimized so that thousands of processors can work seamlessly together. It scales almost perfectly,” Michielsen concludes.