Boffin melds quantum processor with quantum RAM

[steve2470]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/02/quantum_computing_meets_von_neumann/

A California physicist has created a quantum-computing chip based on the CPU/RAM combo known as the von Neumann architecture, opening the door, he argues, to commercial quantum-computing development.

"I think it's very exciting as a researcher because we're really at the borderline between the two worlds of physics and engineering," says Matteo Mariantoni, lead author of "Implementing the Quantum von Neumann Architecture with Superconducting Circuits", published on Thursday in the online pre-publication service of Science magazine, ScienceExpress. (You can get 24-hour access to the article for $15.)

In his quantum computer, he says, computational steps take a few billionths of a second, which is about the same as you get with a classical computer. But unlike a classical computer, a quantum computer can handle a large number of these calculations simultaneously.

As Mariantoni explains in a video provided by the University of California at Santa Barabara, where he is a postdoctoral fellow, the two central quantum phenomena upon which quantum computing are based are superposition and entanglement.