At the moment, many computers are already operating all over the world in countries such as the United States, Germany, China, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada and South Korea. In Spain, the installation in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center of another machine of this type is planned in 2025, a project is also available in Galicia, and now the Basque country announces that it will have its own in San Sebastián before the year; in 2024. They cost 120 million in cash, as reported by the Basque Government.
What are quantum computers?
The foundation from which these computing devices are developed is the principle of material superposition, which, due to its complexity, allows the development of computing different from the traditional one, which in theory would be able to store more states per unit of information. and the algorithms work much more efficiently at the numerical level. Thus, quantum computers in quantum mechanics, which is the branch of physics that studies atomic and subatomic particles, have to overcome the limits of classical computing. Among other things, and always in theory, it will be able to enable a multitude of simultaneous operations and eliminate the tunneling effect that affects today’s programming at the nanometric scale.
In quantum computing, the fundamental unit of information is no longer the bit, which is replaced by the qubit, which allows for a coherent superposition of them and ciphers, the binary digit system that is the basis of all computation. A bit, on the other hand, can only take on one value at a time. The multitude of states (a qubit can be zero and one at the same time and also be in different proportions) allows a 30-qubit computer to perform up to 5.8 trillion operations per second, more than the most powerful PlayStation console. market
In addition, quantum computing does not have its own code for the purpose and requires the development of specific algorithms. Modern standard languages (Java, SQL or Python) do not work here. All this means that computers are not tools for everyday use and units are only promoted for corporate, scientific and technological use. But 80 years ago, the first computers were not suitable for home use.
What are they currently proposing in San Sebastian?
The quantum computer they are now announcing for the Basque Country will be built by IBM and installed in the Basque Country’s Quantum Computing Center. It will be called System One and will include a single 127-qubit Eagle chip. No, the proponents of the project admit, the amount of hardware ahead of IBM, but it means a giant leap for the amount of computing in Spain. In Barcelona, another computer is planned, this one with 30 qubits, which will start working in 2025 in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and in Galicia, Fujitsu sent to build another one, with 32 qubits, which could be ready at the end. this year. Germany, the Republic, France, Italy, and Poland are also planning their own, but in Spain, according to all indications, it seems that one for each autonomous community will end.
At the moment, how many computers are already working all over the world in the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada and South Korea. In Spain, the installation in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center of another type of this type is planned for 2025 and now the Basque Country announces that it will have its own in San Sebastián last year: in 2024.
