http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-1573410.html
U.S. scientists closer to making new type
of supercomputer
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
March 15, 2000, 1:55 p.m. PT
LONDON--U.S. scientists moved a step closer to developing a
super-computer after looking at a branch of physics that researches the
physics of particles invisible to the human eye.
"In the language of quantum information science, we have realized a
four-quantum-bit logic gate. This system is relevant for the future development of
quantum information technology," the scientists said in the journal Nature.
Conventional computers are based on binary
"switches," or bits, which can either be switched on
or off. Computers carry out calculations utilizing these
switches.
Quantum theory holds that entities such as atoms do
not decide whether they exist in an on or off state
until they are measured or interact with something.
When they are not interacting, the atoms exist in both
states at once--a quantum superposition--said
Christopher Monroe, a researcher at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Computers based on quantum physics would
therefore be able to have switches or "qbits" that exist
in both on and off states simultaneously.
A string of these quantum bits would consequently offer every possible on-off
combination and could carry out every calculation a computer needed
simultaneously, hugely increasing the computer's power and memory.
Fiber Optics to the Home
Fiber optics has helped push the telecommunications system into hyperdrive. But only when fiber connections reach all the way into the home will the technology’s promise be fully realized.
Dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) is a technology that puts data from different sources together on an optical fiber, with each signal carried on its own separate light wavelength. Using DWDM, up to 80 (and theoretically more) separate wavelengths or channels of data can be multiplexed into a lightstream transmitted on a single optical fiber. In a system with each channel carrying 2.5 Gbps (billion bits per second), up to 200 billion bits can be delivered a second by the optical fiber. DWDM is also sometimes called wave division multiplexing (WDM).
