Inside Cyber

CHAPTER 21Quantum Computing

Since the 1960s, when the electronic calculator was invented, the field of computing has seen tremendous breakthroughs. Thanks to technology, things that were formerly considered science fiction dreams are now reality. Our processing equipment is getting smaller and more versatile, while classical computing has become enormously quicker and more capable.

Quantum computing, like artificial intelligence (AI), will create a technological paradigm shift for humankind. Computing of the future will be guided by artificial synapses that resemble those of the human brain. The components could be based on transistors, chemicals, biological, photonics, or quantum components, and they could be either analog or digital. The transition from classical computing to quantum computing has already begun. Quantum computing has the power to transform industries, spur scientific advancement, and catalyze innovation in the digital age by using the concepts of quantum physics to execute computations at a scale never seen before.

Quantum computing is defined by the research firm Gartner as “the use of atomic quantum states to effect computation.” Quantum bits, or qubits, store data and are capable of holding all states concurrently and can represent a range of values in one qubit, rather than the more conventional binary bits of ones and zeros. This representation is called superpositioning.

Superpositioning is what gives quantum computers speed and parallelism (quantum ...