Ditching binary will make quantum computers more powerful


	Ditching binary will make quantum computers more powerful

Cushla

8-15-2009 8:18 AM

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Cushla says:

But other possibilities exist, Neeley explains. "We could use a 'trinary' system with three digits – 0, 1 and 2 – and then the fundamental units would be trinary digits, or trits, that would essentially be three-position switches." A single "trit" would contain more information a conventional "bit".

Neeley's team have now built a quantum computer whose building blocks have five basic states.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/5cc01e63-3205-46dc-b2f0-5a2bc6ed46a6/BB34D8AC-432A-428D-9F25-6E96CF220F19/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html"><H1>
Ditching binary will make quantum computers more powerful
</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.newscientist.com/img/6D0E2336-D8A8-4685-BA1B-876BC0202E99" alt="Unlike most pieces of computer hardware, this quantum bit handles data using five basic states instead of the conventional two (Image: Erik Lucero/UCSB)" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html"><P class="lowlight">Unlike most pieces of computer hardware, this quantum bit handles data using five basic states instead of the conventional two (Image: Erik Lucero/UCSB)</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html"><P class="infuse">Memo to the developers of superfast <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/quantum-world" alt="Evolution" omd="zodJump('http://widgets.zibb.com/images/_jump.gif?tag=InfusionJS&url=http:%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Ftopic%2Fquantum-world&gsid=Evolution&entitytypeid=kw&lid=http://www.newscientist.com/topic/quantum-world&title=Evolution&intref=infusion&variantName=quantum&zodid=96')" class="infusionLink">quantum</A> computers: give up on the familiar 1s-and-0s binary system used in conventional computers. By switching to a novel five-state system, you will find it easier to build the staggeringly powerful machines.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html"><P class="infuse">So far, the development of quantum computers has followed the traditional binary computing model. This encodes all information using components that can be in two states, either 1 or 0.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17575-ditching-binary-will-make-quantum-computers-more-powerful.html"><P class="infuse">So claim Matthew Neeley and colleagues at the <A target="ns" href="http://www.ucsb.edu/">University of California, Santa Barbara</A> (UCSB).</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/BB34D8AC-432A-428D-9F25-6E96CF220F19/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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