On Saturday, January 4, 2020, 11:49:08 AM PST, Punk-Stasi 2.0 wrote: On Sat, 4 Jan 2020 18:49:59 +0000 (UTC) jim bell wrote:

...

Wccftech: Intel Releases the Horse Ridge Chip for Quantum Computing!. https://wccftech.com/intel-releases-the-horse-ridge-chip-for-quantum-computi... Jim Bell's comment:.  Things look to be getting quite real, here.

 >   so what is that misleading or outright fraudulent headline supposed to mean, exactly.  >   did you read the article? what does it actually say? 'chip for quantum computing'? What does that mean? I read the article, but I don't know about quantum physics to know what this chip is doing.  My exposure to quantum mechanics occurring during MIT class 5.61, as I recall.  https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/chemistry/5-61-physical-chemistry-fall-2007/  I didn't take 8.04; don't even recall if that class existed in the late 1970s.  https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-04-quantum-physics-i-spring-2013/   This looks to be a somewhat more detailed statement of this product:https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-introduces-horse-ridge-enable-commerci... This chip addresses the difficulty in re-setting-up quantum experiments, when the ultimate hardware must be immersed in liquid helium near to 0 degrees Kelvin.  "Re-wiring" the experiments requires either connecting with hundreds of wires coming out, or this new chip which handles the control at a very low temperature:  about 4 degrees K.  From that press release: ========================================================"Why Horse Ridge is Important: To date, researchers have been focused on building small-scale quantum systems to demonstrate the potential of quantum devices. In these efforts, researchers have relied on existing electronic tools and high-performance computing rack-scale instruments to connect the quantum system inside the cryogenic refrigerator to the traditional computational devices regulating qubit performance and programming the system. These devices are often custom-designed to control individual qubits, requiring hundreds of connective wires into and out of the refrigerator in order to control the quantum processor. This extensive control cabling for each qubit will hinder the ability to scale the quantum system to the hundreds or thousands of qubits required to demonstrate quantum practicality, not to mention the millions of qubits required for a commercially viable quantum solution. With Horse Ridge, Intel radically simplifies the control electronics required to operate a quantum system. Replacing these bulky instruments with a highly-integrated system-on-chip (SoC) will simplify system design and allow for sophisticated signal processing techniques to accelerate set-up time, improve qubit performance and enable the system to efficiently scale to larger qubit counts. More About Horse Ridge: Horse Ridge is a highly integrated, mixed-signal SoC that brings the qubit controls into the quantum refrigerator — as close as possible to the qubits themselves. It effectively reduces the complexity of quantum control engineering from hundreds of cables running into and out of a refrigerator to a single, unified package operating near the quantum device. Designed to act as a radio frequency (RF) processor to control the qubits operating in the refrigerator, Horse Ridge is programmed with instructions that correspond to basic qubit operations. It translates those instructions into electromagnetic microwave pulses that can manipulate the state of the qubits. Named for one of the coldest regions in Oregon, the Horse Ridge control chip was designed to operate at cryogenic temperatures — approximately 4 Kelvin. To put this in context, 4 Kelvin is only warmer than absolute zero — a temperature so cold that atoms nearly stop moving.[end of quote from press release]

Jim Bell's comments inline.       On Saturday, January 4, 2020, 01:15:00 PM PST, Punk-Stasi 2.0 wrote: On Sat, 4 Jan 2020 20:49:58 +0000 (UTC) jim bell wrote:

...

   This looks to be a somewhat more detailed statement of this product: https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-introduces-horse-ridge-enable-commerci...

    yeah, that source is a bit better...

    So, a few datapoints

    1) the chip is an 'ordinary' chip used to interface to qbits. It's not a 'quantum chip' itself. 

Apparently so.  I think it controls the environment for the q-bits in the cold, but is capable of existing and working in that cold, too.  >   2) the project is a textbook fascist project done by 'cooperation' between criminals at intel and criminals at the dutch government "TU Delft and TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research)"  Whether the "criminals" part is relevant is a matter of debate.  >   3) here's an interesting bit >    "...scale the quantum system to the hundreds or thousands of qubits required to demonstrate quantum practicality, not to mention the millions of qubits required for a commercially viable quantum solution"     oh so an actually working system requires millions of qbits, but the current systems have at best 50? Well hopefully they will never manage to get more than 50.  At one time, getting 100 transistors to interact on a single chip was considered phenomenal. I first got interested in electronics about 1970's, when I was 12 years old.  My father had once had a hobby of building (tube-type) audio amplifiers in the 1950's, but he was interrupted by wife and two children.  He wanted to get back into the area, especially when he had heard about "integrated circuits" (ICs), a new and remarkable invention that had HUNDREDS ("Hundreds, I tell ya!!!") of transistors in a small plastic package at least 10 times smaller in volume than most vacuum tubes.  This was truly remarkable. I initially started analog, seeing what I could build with the common 741 op amp.  A very useful chip, I didn't have to learn much about electronics to use them.Later, my father wanted me to involve myself in digital electronics.  SSI turned to MSI turned to LSI turned to VLSI, and eventually ULSI.   I think about ULSI time they gave up on superlatives.  The lesson?  It is the nature of these devices that they seem to go in "Moore's Law" speed.   Orignal (60's) Moore's law was a doubling of transistors in 1 year;  70's and 80's Moore's law was doubling in 18 months; 90's Moore's law was doubling every two years.      

https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/what-it-will-take-make-quantum-compute...

    "applications such as drug development, logistics optimization...natural disaster prediction and many more."      >  'natural disaster prediction' sounds like complete bullshit. As to the other two, who gives a fuck. Of course the scumbag at intel isn't commenting on any military application included in the 'many more' category...

  >  bottom line : QC is either useless or harmful, and hopefully will never work. Said as if you think you can stop it, or that anyone can stop it.  Isn't going to happen.  Could a smartphone (a 2008 invention)  have been predicted in 1968?  Let alone 1958? Even Star Fleet Captain James T. Kirk only was issued a flip-phone.                      Jim Bell