D-Wave Lab Tour part 1(dwave.wordpress.com)
dwave.wordpress.com
D-Wave Lab Tour part 1
https://dwave.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/d-wave-lab-tour-part-1/
2 comments
I think it is kind of important to point out that there isn't much that was shown in the video, that is different from a traditional low-temperature lab (although I am not an expert). The only differences appear to be the compact casing (with some shielding) of the D-wave box and the D-Wave chip itself (whos "quantumness" is a hot topic). The rest of what was shown in the video was a traditional dilution refrigerator setup. I say this not to make a point about how bad D-wave is (they do some good stuff), but to try and separate what is traditional equipment, versus what they claim to be innovating on. I feel this is necessary as dilution refrigerators can be pretty damn impressive and could cause people to think that was the main part of their invention.
Are these computers actually useful?
Let's just say they solve particular case(s) of problems via quantum annealing techniques and be done with it ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_annealing ... there is no doubt in the future going to be other ways to solve other problems but in the meantime the technique works.
About as much as any computer with no software. It's more a push into a new technology for the sake of it. Applications will come, or they won't, we will have to see.
Up to now, no, they aren't.
They are expensive as any computer fabricated at low volume, they aren't faster than current clusters. It may still be a good specialized architecture, but didn't prove itself on any problem.
They are expensive as any computer fabricated at low volume, they aren't faster than current clusters. It may still be a good specialized architecture, but didn't prove itself on any problem.