Intel Tests Smallest Spin Qubit Chip for Quantum Computing
Look at the pencil, wait for it - yes there it is! Intel researchers are taking new steps toward quantum computers by testing a tiny new "spin qubit” chip, smaller than a pencil’s eraser, it is the tiniest quantum computing chip Intel has made.
A 2018 photo shows Intel’s new quantum computing chip balanced on a pencil eraser. Researchers started testing this "spin qubit chip” at the extremely low temperatures necessary for quantum computing: about 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Intel projects that qubit-based quantum computers, which operate based on the behaviors of single electrons, could someday be more powerful than today’s supercomputers.
The new spin qubit chip runs at the extremely low temperatures required for quantum computing: roughly 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit – 250 times colder than space. The spin qubit chip does not contain transistors – the on/off switches that form the basis of today’s computing devices – but qubits (short for "quantum bits”) that can hold a single electron. The behavior of that single electron, which can be in multiple spin states simultaneously, offers vastly greater computing power than today’s transistors, and is the basis of quantum computing.
The zigzag lines in the photo are printed wires connecting the chip’s qubits to the outside world. One feature of Intel’s tiny new spin qubit chip is especially promising. Its qubits are extraordinarily small – about 50 nanometers across and visible only under an electron microscope. About 1,500 qubits could fit across the diameter of a single human hair. This means the design for a new Intel spin qubit chip could be dramatically scaled up. Future quantum computers will contain thousands or even millions of qubits — and will be vastly more powerful than today’s fastest supercomputers.
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-267.778 C or 5.37222 Kelvin, for those who want to know
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lol even to Americans, that number doesn't really mean much.
Also, where are they getting "250x colder than space"? The temperature of space is 2.7K or -270.45C. As Picolete pointed out, the temperature Intel's chip needs to operate at is 5.37K or -267.78C. I don't think any of these temperatures are exponential.
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Good point. The statement "250 times colder than space" seems like a really bad choice of words. "Space" doesn't have a temperature, so that's that.
"Cosmic background temperature" is -455F so that's not it.
"Interstellar gas clouds" are "thousands to millions of degrees Fahrenheit" so maybe that's what they meant.
I'd say the marketing guys are laying it on a little thick...
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Good point. The statement "250 times colder than space" seems like a really bad choice of words. "Space" doesn't have a temperature, so that's that.
"Cosmic background temperature" is -455F so that's not it.
"Interstellar gas clouds" are "thousands to millions of degrees Fahrenheit" so maybe that's what they meant.
I'd say the marketing guys are laying it on a little thick...
Space contains particles, which have kinetic energy and therefore a temperature. The average temperature of space is 2.7 K.
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"The new spin qubit chip runs at the extremely low temperatures required for quantum computing: roughly 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit – 250 times colder than space."
Maybe Intel was showcasing the first commercial product at 5Ghz with that chiller unit last week! (Sarcasm)