An unprecedented Brazilian project could transform the technology sector. A quantum computer is promising to increase the usability of devices. For that, the engineering project, held at the University of São Paulo (USP), is working on launching a supercomputer with multiple processing units.
At the moment, This is still a major limitation of quantum computing since existing solutions only have one processor. This proposal was presented by computer engineer Waldemir Cambiucci, PhD student at the Polytechnic School (Poli) from USP, in a recent article. Despite the innovative idea, the project is still in its initial phase.
Chemical, financial market and AI
The responsible team believes that the product can contribute to the areas of AI (Artificial intelligence), chemical, financial market and material sciences. According to the creator, The challenge is to make the computer viable in the shortest possible time to use it in current scenarios.
But, before multiple processors became a reality, they will go through a long development and testing schedule. In this process, there will be steps to optimize operations, quantum bit mappings and the initialization itself.
Quantum computing: what is it??
Quantum computers are already considered the next step to be taken by technology when it comes to computing. Innovation consists of processing information through particles such as atoms, electrons and light to meet more complex demands and problems.
Classical computing uses bits (basic units of information) to function, assuming values of 0s and 1s. Quantum computers are based on qubits. This difference causes superposition to occur, a phenomenon that occurs due to the combination of both values at the same time, increasing the capacity of devices.
“Along with the phenomena of entanglement and interference, superposition is characteristic of a quantum computer, which carries out its processing based on the principles of quantum mechanics”, explains Cambiucci. This computing model will also allow greater security in digital processes.
Projects with high error rates
At the moment, quantum computers are only for experimental use. The lack of multiple processors means that these models still register high error rates and limitations for applications required in complex scenarios..
In the current technological market, there are already other quantum computing projects with multiple processors in progress.. Nonetheless, the Brazilian researcher states that they all still have high error rates. The proposal of the Brazilian project is to correct these problems.
