It seems fitting for my first
post, for my Quantum Computing blog, to discuss the two types of Quantum
Computers. The reason it seems fitting is that when I decided to use
Quantum Computing for my master's degree thesis was the fact that the company
D-Wave was selling quantum computing since the turn of the 20th century. I knew
that their computer was an annealing type of quantum computing. All I understood
at that time was it had to do with superconducting chips.
It turns out that we are in the Beta and VHS phase of development when it comes to quantum computing. What do I mean? Anyone that lived through that time would understand. At the dawn of the video cassette age there were two types of video tapes, Beta Max and VHS. In time everyone used just VHS. Meanwhile my family now had two copies of everything.
So, in the quantum age, we
have annealing and gateway type of quantum computers. D-Wave has been
selling quantum-annealing computers since the turn of the century. D-wave has,
just recently, ventured into the gate type of quantum computers. In
October of 2021, D-Wave made plans to venture into the gateway quantum
computer. Click
here to view the announcement.
To Explain it in Simpler
terms we will first explain what each type does and then give a link to a page
that shows the differences of both side by side. The Annealing type of quantum
computer uses a superconductor and calculates solutions to problems by measuring
optimization of the energy level of the physical annealing computer.
The gate models are what the average user thinks about when talking
about quantum computers. The gate models have that name based on the fact the
machine uses quantum gates. The quantum gates are used along with quantum
computing algorithms providing the unit more functions than its counterpart of
annealing quantum computers.
Follow this link to see the differences side by side and
make the decision for yourself.
As to not follow the Beta Max video tape into infamy,
companies are seeing the future using both types of technologies.