Assuming you read the tech news weekly, I’m sure you have at least heard about the nearing end of Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law states that the speed of computers doubles every 18 months with transistors getting smaller each year. Well, there is a certain limit as to how small we can get a transistor to exist in the Central Processing Unit (CPU)  because of heating issues. By cutting the size of transistors to be atoms thick, we are face quantum mechanic issues where electrons flow from one transistor to another causing a shortage. To counter those issues, researchers and scientists all over the world are investigating possible alternatives to conventional computers, such as quantum computers, biological computers, chemical computers, and more.

Today, I’m here to talk to you about quantum computers. Though today’s topic does not relate to the realm of programming directly, I want to share with you why I feel the general public should learn more about quantum computing.

First off, quantum computing is a highly complicated process that uses and shapes individual atoms to store and compute data. It is a relatively new field that has gained much support globally and has stirred great interest in the future of computers. Quantum computers are based on quantum bits which are known as units of information held/stored on individual atoms. The special thing about quantum bits, also known as qubits, is that it can represent any value from 0 to 1, or both simultaneously. By both simultaneously, I mean qubits can be both 1 and 0 by means of superposition of two quantum states of 0 and 1.

Therefore, the ability of data (qubits) to be infinitely capable, with space of just one atom, raises hope for the future of computing as we are nearing the maximum speeds of conventional computers. Quantum computers will be able to compute at speeds millions of times faster than supercomputers today because they can store and manipulate data at the same time, while conventional computers have to do them separately. Conventional computers today also use bits that have a storage capacity of 1 million atoms. To reduce that number to just a single atom for quantum computing means quantum computers will be super efficient and powerful. I encourage you today to do more research on quantum computing. Thanks for reading.