But a computer is more than its bits. You need a register to hold qubits and perform operations on them. You need a memory, so that you can store qubits between operations. And you need to be able to initialize and readout the qubit so that you can begin and end a calculation. Now, there are groups of researchers who have done all of these separately. And, using trapped ions, some groups can even claim to have done the whole lot together. But I don't think anyone seriously thinks that tables full of optics, lasers, and vacuum systems is the way to quantum computing nirvana.
No, quantum computing nirvana is firmly in the realm of solid-state physics. Unfortunately, this is where the problems begin. Qubits don't last long in the solid state. Entanglement lasts a few hundred nanoseconds and coherence decays away faster than a banking regulation. Yet despite these problems, a group of researchers have managed to make an entire quantum microprocessor out of superconducting qubits.
Admittedly, the computer is rather simple: a two-qubit register made from SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices), two additional SQUIDs that can be used to zero the register (and act as readout), and microwave resonator striplines, which act as memory. The most significant part, however, is a bus that couples the two register qubits together. This bus enables the researchers to program the register to perform different logic operations. That is what makes this something I am willing to call a microprocessor—though it can't load up a sequential set of instructions into a memory element and execute them.
World's first quantum microprocessor?
Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Is that somem kind of clothes iron?
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