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1 Progress in Computing
Pages 12-23

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From page 12...
... This information will provide context for understanding the unique potential of quantum computing along with potential challenges to development of any new and competitive computing technology and will serve as a comparative framework for understanding progress toward a practical quantum computer. 1.1 ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY COMPUTING Progress in one area of science and engineering often catalyzes or accelerates discovery in another, creating new pathways forward for both 12
From page 13...
... In the early 1800s, Charles Babbage designed a mechanical computer, the "difference engine," to print astronomical tables, and later proposed a more complex mechanical computing machine, the "analytical engine." Due to the absence of practical manufacturing technologies, neither was built at that time, but this engine was the first conception of a general-purpose programmable computer. The contemporary concept of a computer further coalesced in the 1930s with the work of Alan Turing.
From page 14...
... However, even as the design of their hardware components is increasingly informed by the quantum properties of materials, and as the ever-shrinking size of these components means that quantum phenomena introduce more constraints 2 While the laws of quantum mechanics must be invoked to design or explain the operation of semiconductor materials whose bandgaps enable the implementation of today's widely deployed conventional computer logic gates, the nature of the logical information processing itself is based upon the flow of a classical model of a charged particle.
From page 15...
... This was a striking discovery because it also suggested that anyone with a real-world quantum computer could break the cryptographic codes that make use of these problems, compromising the security of encrypted communications and encrypted stored data, and potentially uncovering protected secrets or private information. These results catalyzed interest among researchers in developing other quantum algorithms with exponentially better performance than classical algorithms, and trying to create the basic quantum building blocks from which a quantum computer could be built.
From page 16...
... This section describes how this happened, which reveals a number of lessons and challenges for any new computing technology. The process used to create integrated circuits, the key components of today's computers, emerged as an unplanned advance amid efforts in the 1960s to improve the industrial manufacturing process for transistors.
From page 17...
... operations remained roughly constant, meaning that the financial cost of the technology improvements underlying Moore's law also increased exponentially. Interestingly, in addition to this exponential growth, both the cost of building an IC manufacturing plant and the cost of creating a design to be manufactured also displayed exponential growth.
From page 18...
... In many ways, the integrated circuit industry created -- and then grew to depend upon -- Silicon Valley, which later globalized to its position today. The growing capabilities of, and market for, computer hardware attracted venture funding, support industries, and, most importantly, talent into the field.
From page 19...
... It represents a transistor circuit whose function is controlled by a set of instructions read from an attached memory. Once it became possible to build complex integrated circuits, it became possible to integrate a small computer onto a single IC, creating a "micro-computer," or "microprocessor." This design made it much easier to leverage cheap transistors; new applications no longer required the design and fabrication of an application-specific IC but could instead be implemented by changing the instructions provided to an existing microprocessor to create the desired solution.
From page 20...
... Since Moore's law is really about transistor cost, one indication of scaling issues is the fact that transistor costs are not dropping at their historical rate in the most advanced technologies., It is also interesting to note that the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, an international consortium that was formed to help keep technology scaling in line with Moore's law and address possible roadblocks to doing so, decided to stop its scaling projections with the 5-7 nanometer feature sizes expected around 2021. Decreased growth is also apparent in net revenue trends for the integrated circuit industry, illustrated in Figure 1.1.
From page 21...
... This plot indicates that the virtuous cycle, where each improvement in technology brought more money to the industry, has begun to slow down. This slowdown in revenue growth is likely to affect technology development cycles, which will affect technology scaling.
From page 22...
... The next chapter describes the physical phenomena that underlie quantum computing, comparing the associated operation principles to those of conventional computers. Subsequent chapters then describe tasks at which quantum computers could potentially outperform classical computers, their implications for cryptography, the hardware and software needed to create a working quantum computer, and the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying physical technologies for creating quantum computers.
From page 23...
... Chuang, 2002, Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.


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