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Research at UW chips away at existing computer codes
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by Shivan Gulati
Monday, September 9, 2002
Internet users beware. The encryption methods relied on by everyone from e-mail users to the highest-level government agencies could soon be rendered useless.
Research being conducted here at the University of Wisconsin could soon lead to the development of computer chips that can break codes in a matter of minutes or days, as opposed to today’s chips which do the same calculations in hundreds or millions of years.
Robert Joynt and his associates in the UW Electrical and Computer Engineering Department received a government grant almost a year-and-a-half ago for quantum research, and since then have been researching quantum computer chips which they hope one day can be developed for practical use.
While practical quantum computers have not yet been developed, they would allow computations to be performed much faster than they are performed today. Computers now take several thousand steps to perform simple tasks.
“Quantum computing is massively parallel,” Joynt said. This means quantum computers can examine all of the possible solutions to a problem at the same time, thus significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to perform a calculation.
This increased efficiency would allow quantum computers to sort through large databases and find information instantly, as well as decode encrypted messages. These new developments have attracted significant interest from several government agencies.
For many years it was not entirely certain whether quantum computers would be resourceful. It took almost 15 years for an algorithm to be created that proved quantum computers would be as fast as scientists had claimed.
A physicist at the University of British Columbia recently produced the algorithm.
Paul Rugheimer, a graduate student who has been involved in UW’s research since the beginning of the project, says while the fabrication of a quantum chip could be decades away, the hardest part is being tackled now.
“Progress until now [in quantum computing] has been slow, but in the past few years it has gained significantly more attention,” Rugheimer said. “Because we’re tackling the difficult problems first, the rest of our problems ought to be easier, and we won’t face many of the problems that plague other groups.”
In addition to UW’s researchers, several other groups across the country have received funding for quantum research. Research being done at UW, however, differs in that while other groups are experimenting with the interactions between electrons and impure atoms, UW research involves the interaction between two electrons, which is considerably more difficult to do.
“We’re trying to trap a single electron and have it talk to another one, which is vital for a quantum computer to work,” Rugheimer said. “Right now, we’re trying to reproduce the work of other groups to trap one electron, and we’re still in the process of developing a structure to trap two electrons. That hasn’t been done yet at all.”
The basic idea of quantum computing involves the interaction between thousands of individually controlled electrons in a silicon chip.
“We’re in the infancy of quantum computing. The guys who invented the first transistor didn’t know it would lead to today’s computers and the Internet; we’re at the same stage,” Rugheimer said. “We can’t predict the future, but we already know some potential applications of quantum computers, which is a good sign that the future holds lots more potential.”
