Softwords Blog

A look into the future of Quamtum Computers

By: Michael Yuan

Having trouble keeping up with today’s fast pace technology? Well be prepared to be blown away, the new wave of computers are just around the corner. These new generation machines surpass the computers of today. What are these amazing machines? Quantum Computers.

To picture what a quantum computer might look like, you have to disregard any knowledge of conventional computers as they exist today. A Quantum computer is basically a specific number of atoms, which (after placed under a magnetic field) have the ability to switch their charges. The switching of charges can also be compared to the way a computer would look at binary code. Binary code also deals with ON and OFF switches (usually referred to as 1’s and 0’s). By piecing together strings of these 1’s and 0’s, the computer can develop commands. With a Quantum computer, these are all done with quantum particles such as electrons and atomic nuclei. Qubits (or quantum bits) are the individual units that make up a quantum computer. The major advantages to quantum computers are that they can be in a state of superposition, which means that an atom or nucleus can be both 1 and 0 at the same time. Computers today can only process an On (1) or Off (0) switch, but by being able to do both at the same time this increases the speed that the computer can process data.

Technology that would exponentially surpass that of what exists today definitely has a number of uses. Throughout time technological advances have made people work more efficiently. For example in a typical clinic 5 years ago a person would find papers everywhere. Today technology enables us to store and retrieve those same papers all within a computer (with software such as A&L Document Console). Looking into the future, the possibilities are endless. With a quantum computer being able to calculate exponentially faster than the computers of today this will save the user even more time. Within the next 5 to 10 years the way that records are kept will be changed to an even greater extent.

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