Chinese scientists have created the world’s first superfast memory for quantum computers, solving a critical data-reading bottleneck and paving the way for big-data challenges such as drug discovery and detecting fraudulent financial activities.
Quantum computers are expected to solve complex problems at speeds unattainable by traditional computers, and they need an efficient way to access classical data.
Without a high-speed data interface, even the fastest quantum machine is slowed down when forced to process massive classical data sequentially.
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According to the team led by Zhejiang University, “Quantum random access memory (QRAM) enables efficient access to classical data for quantum computers and is a prerequisite for many quantum algorithms in achieving quantum speed-up.”
Quantum computers use qubits to process information. Unlike traditional computer bits, which can represent either a zero or one, qubits can exist in a “superposition” state and represent both zero and one simultaneously.
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This peculiar characteristic, along with quantum entanglement, allows quantum computers to perform certain tasks exponentially faster than even the most powerful supercomputers.
