[HN Gopher] First portable quantum computers on sale in Japan?
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First portable quantum computers on sale in Japan?
Author : Anon84
Score : 47 points
Date : 2023-05-18 18:44 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (tech.news.am)
(TXT) w3m dump (tech.news.am)
| Fatboyrunning wrote:
| Had HN been around when personal computing dropped, I imagine
| that we could have made some attempt at a steel man argument
| justifying such a purpose. Even if that argument was 'hobbyists',
| there was something to be said.
|
| With Quantum computing, what would that be?
| snapcaster wrote:
| Is this a scam? I'm not asking rhetorically I actually don't
| understand what this thing does or who its for
| version_five wrote:
| I've been hearing a few apparently earnest mentions of using
| quantum computers for actual application in the last bit. I
| think that's BS, correct? There is no demonstrated thing that
| current quantum computers are better at, save for possibly a
| contrived problem? Am I missing some advance?
| Yoric wrote:
| It's still very much a research problem, yes.
| staunton wrote:
| I believe you're right. This product seems to be aimed at
| education. I.e., people/companies who want to play around
| with something resembling a quantum computer in order to
| learn how they might one day be useful to them. Maybe buying
| one also helps build an image of innovation and scientific
| prowess.
| NickC25 wrote:
| I understand why certain tech companies such as Google/MSFT or
| chemical research companies like Pfizer or defense companies like
| Lockheed have quantum computers.
|
| Why are these being sold for personal use? Running Shor's
| algorithm probably gets boring after the second or third time.
|
| Plus, this machine simulates up to 8 qubits - what's the point of
| something that small?
| Yoric wrote:
| Best guess? Because simulating more than 8 qubits requires lots
| of processing power.
| AntonCTO wrote:
| I won't believe in it until it proves to solve one of the known
| NP problems in polynomial time.
| pnemonic wrote:
| But can they run Crysis?
| defterGoose wrote:
| No, but Skyrim is coming soon.
| Drblessing wrote:
| What about doom?
| ryanSrich wrote:
| Is there any practical use for one of these at the moment? As a
| hobby dev, what could I do with one?
| isaacg wrote:
| They seem to be marketed for educational purposes. You could
| simulate them in software easily. They could be useful for
| research, but they're not directly useful for computing, except
| as a novelty.
| bbarnett wrote:
| _You could simulate them in software easily._
|
| Yes, just like you can simulate an ntsc interlaced screen in
| software.
| roywiggins wrote:
| It even comes bundled with simulation software:
|
| "Gemini Mini is a conditionally portable, entry-level 2-cubit
| system... The device has built-in CASTOR software, allowing
| it to simulate the operation of 8 qubits."
|
| Not sure what benefit you get from using real qubits vs just
| simulating them, even for educational purposes.
| paulddraper wrote:
| Kind of like the early computers.
| defterGoose wrote:
| Potentially, something like generating high quality random
| numbers. This assumes a great deal about the fidelity of the
| qubits and the control software though.
| boothby wrote:
| There is much better, faster, cheaper hardware out there to
| generate random numbers. Using a quantum computer as an RNG
| is akin to buying an airplane and using it to blow-dry a
| carpet.
| charcircuit wrote:
| Modern processors already ship with hardware that enables
| high quality random numbers.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| When your school is trying to sell itself, "we run a quantum
| computer lab" is a good thing. These would appear the cheapest
| means of qualifying that statement in your international
| student brochure.
| AlexCoventry wrote:
| It's at best a joke, quite likely a scam.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| No, switch science is a legitimate parts distributor in
| Japan, kinda like Adafruit.
| nradov wrote:
| You could probably compute the prime factors of 15 with one.
| codekilla wrote:
| The Quantenkoffer by qutools is an interesting kit for learning
| about quantum stuff [1]
|
| Also, Qiskit pulse was fun to play around with (haven't in
| awhile, don't know what the current capabilities are) [2]
|
| [1] https://qutools.com/quantenkoffer_science-kit/
|
| [2] https://qiskit.org/documentation/apidoc/pulse.html
| isaacg wrote:
| The cubit/kubit/qubit typo does not inspire confidence in this
| article. Here's the items for sale, in Japanese:
| https://www.switch-science.com/search?type=article%2Cpage%2C...*
| parl_match wrote:
| For what it's worth, the site is not from an English speaking
| country, and c/k/q are common points of confusion for ESL
| dvh wrote:
| Japanese also don't distinct v/b and l/r so love [lav] is
| written as rabu (-u because with exception of -n they don't
| like to end word on consonant), thus "rabu songu"
| cubefox wrote:
| Oh, I found the apparently quite limited number of Japanese
| syllables interesting, and indeed:
|
| > The basic units of the Japanese writing system are
| syllables. Standard Japanese uses 100 distinct syllables.
| Of these, 5 are single vowels, 62 are consonants combined
| with a vowel, and 53 are consonants combined with 'y' plus
| a vowel. [1]
|
| Which suggests a relatively obvious possibility of a simple
| writing system, where learning to write and read doesn't
| require memorizing countless (logographic / concept based)
| kanji. Though kanji seem to be older. So apparently the
| syllable/character association was not as obvious as it
| seems.
|
| It's interesting that assigning syllables characters isn't
| really practical in Germanic/Romance languages, as there
| are far more than in Japanese. One source cites 15.000 out
| of 100.000 possible for English [2]. It's actually cool
| that someone came up with the consonant/vowel distinction,
| ages ago, which saves tons of characters, and which proved
| to be a big advantage (mostly over logographic writing)
| when the printing press took Europe by storm, while it
| flopped in China and Korea [3].
|
| [1] http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/japan/japanworkbook/langu
| age/l...
|
| [2] https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/courses/spsci/iss/week7.php
|
| [3] https://erik-engheim.medium.com/why-didnt-china-become-
| the-w...
| thethirdone wrote:
| > Which suggests a relatively obvious possibility of a
| simple writing system, where learning to write and read
| doesn't require memorizing countless (logographic /
| concept based) kanji. Though kanji seem to be older. So
| apparently the syllable/character association was not as
| obvious as it seems.
|
| Its somewhat shocking to me that you are not aware of
| hiragana and katakana or at the very least romanji. They
| are mentioned in [1] in the writing section.
|
| From [1]:
|
| > Kanji : Thousands of characters borrowed from Chinese
| writing, each with a different meaning
|
| > Hiragana : 46 "smooth" style phonetic symbols used for
| inflected endings, grammatical particles and other
| Japanese words
|
| > Katakana : 46 "block" style phonetic symbols used for
| writing foreign loan words, foreign names, and for
| emphasis
| explaininjs wrote:
| _And they shall make a computer of Dimethylphosphite molecules:
| 2 or 3 qubits shall be the capacity thereof, and a cubit and a
| half the length thereof, and a half cubit the breadth
| thereof..._
| izzydata wrote:
| At least the first home computer was actually useful.
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