Get ready for the biggest change in computing since silicon chips.
Quantum Computing is a complete reboot of modern computer science. And this week, Microsoft (MSFT) extended its relationship with Purdue University to make it happen sooner rather than later.
Current computer architecture is binary. Information is encoded in a system of bits, 1s and 0s. Silicon microprocessors, even as powerful as they have become, act like fancy light switches. They process information in either an on or off condition.
Quantum computers are different. Information is encoded in qubits, which are not binary. In fact, a qubit can be both a 1 and a 0 at the same time. In theory, this removes the limitations on processors.
Robust, scalable quantum computers would advance compute power by an order of magnitude. They could expedite drug discovery, cryptography and our understanding of the universe.
Quantum computers should find order in chaos.
However, getting there is not going to be easy. Steve Tally, writing at Phys.Org, notes researchers will need to simultaneously advance the current state of materials science, condensed matters physics, electrical engineering and general computer science.
Microsoft has assembled a top-notch team. In addition to scientists at Purdue University, the collaboration will extend to the University of Sydney, in Australia, the Niels Bohr Institute in Denmark, TU Delft in the Netherlands and the software giant’s Station Q unit in Santa Barbara, Calif.
The California team is led by Michael Freedman, a noted mathematician and Fields Medal recipient.
D-Wave Systems, based in Canada’s British Columbia, already has a working quantum prototype. Google, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association have been testing the system. Recently, Virginia Tech announced it will take delivery of an upgraded 2000 qubit system this year.
And since 2013, Alphabet (GOOGL), the world’s largest software company, has been quietly working on its own quantum computer. In 2014, it hired John Martinis from the University of California at Santa Barbara to design superconducting qubits. The plan is to start small, then scale up.
Companies are investing now because advances in current compute power and analytic software make research and development more efficient than ever before. And academic excitement is off the charts.
“There is another computing planet out there, and we, collectively, are going to land on it,” says Station Q’s Freedman. “It really is like the old days of physical exploration and much more interesting than locking oneself in a bottle and traveling through space.”
For investors, the timing is right, too.
Aside from Alphabet, Microsoft and D-Wave, quantum computing is going to produce a bevy of big winners. These winners include companies that will develop cutting-edge integrated circuits, compounds and equipment. Software companies will also win. Finding these companies and determining the right time to invest is important.
It’s a big part of my Tech Trend Trader letter. The future will be filled with emerging technology companies. And most of them are not yet household names. I’ll find them, and help you own them.
Best wishes,
Jon Markman
