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May 1981 – Richard Feynman proposed the idea of using quantum phenomena to perform computations. In a speech at the First Conference on the Physics of Computation at MIT, he noted that it would be practically impossible to simulate a simple quantum experiment on a classical computer. He suggested, however, a simple model for a quantum computer. Image Link: http://www.iopblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/QuantumManPbk-302x450.jpg
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1985 – At the University of Oxford, David Deutsch wrote a paper which gave a description of the first ever quantum Turing machine (universal quantum computer). He suggested that quantum gates could function in a similar way to traditional binary logic gates.
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1994 – In New Jersey, Peter Shor discovered what is now known as Shor’s algorithm. This algorithm, which is explained on the Algorithms section of this site, allows a quantum computer to factor large integers quickly, and could hence potentially break several cryptosystems used today.
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1996 – At Bell Labs, Lov Grover discovered what is now known as Grover’s algorithm. This quantum algorithm, which is also briefly explained on the Algorithms section of this site, allows a quantum computer to search an unsorted database at a much faster speed than a classical computer.
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1998 - This year saw the first working 3-qubit NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) quantum computer. An NMR quantum computer is one that uses the spin states of molecules as qubits. This 3-qubit NMR computer was built by scientists working at MIT and the University of Waterloo.
Image Rights: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/wp-content/uploads//2012/02/ibm-quantum.jpg -
Link to IBM Press Article2000 - 5-qubit NMR computer built by IBM. It was squeezed onto a single Fluorine molecule, and it used each of the five fluorine atoms’ spin configurations to represent qubits. Part of Shor’s algorithm was demonstrated using this quantum computer.
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7-qubit NMR computer was built at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Image : Dr Isaac Chuang loads a vial containing the seven-qubit quantum computer molecules into NMR equipment Image rights: http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/PC%20Plus/PCP%20289/PCP289.feat4.bodyimage05-420-90.jpg
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Link to IBM Press article IBM fully executed Shor’s algorithm with an NMR implementation of a quantum computer with 7 qubits. The seven-qubit quantum machine found the factors of the number 15.
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Link to news articleDecember 2005, the first qubyte was created at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. An entanglement of eight quantum particles was observed, yielding a qubyte.
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Lnk to Yale News. Image rights to YaleJune 09 - Team at Yale created a basic solid-state quantum processor. Used two-qubit superconducting chip to successfully run simple algorithms. An important advancement was that before this, scientists didn’t manage to get a qubit to last longer than a nanosecond, but the Yale qubit lasted a microsecond. Quantum processor made using solid state electronics, unlike the NMR implementations. Artificial atoms used, which could be placed in the superpositional state quantum computers need.
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June– A company called D-Wave Systems announced a ten-million dollar commercial quantum computer, with a 128-qubit chipset that performs a task known as discrete optimization. However, this is not confirmed, and the company has received much criticism from scientists, who have argued that the computer isn’t really a quantum one, due to the lack of demonstrations of the inner workings of the computer.
Image rights: http://www.fastcursor.com/computers/images/d-wave-quantum-computer-photo.jpg
