Ditching binary will make quantum computers more powerful
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Date posted: 10/08/2009
Posted by: Site Administration
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 Computing Power

Memo to the developers of superfast quantum computers: give up on the familiar 1s-and-0s binary system used in conventional computers. By switching to a novel five-state system, you will find it easier to build the staggeringly powerful machines.

So claim Matthew Neeley and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

So far, the development of quantum computers has followed the traditional binary computing model. This encodes all information using components that can be in two states, either 1 or 0.

But other possibilities exist, Neeley explains. "We could use a 'trinary' system with three digits ? 0, 1 and 2 ? and then the fundamental units would be trinary digits, or trits, that would essentially be three-position switches." A single "trit" would contain more information a conventional "bit".

Neeley's team have now built a quantum computer whose building blocks have five basic states.

See the full Story via external site: www.newscientist.com