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Category: computing

Oratomic raises $300M to build a viable quantum computer that needs only 20K qubits

A number of companies, betting on various architectural approaches, are trying to build the first commercially viable quantum computer capable of significantly outperforming current systems.

Oratomic, which entered the race earlier this year with the goal of developing the first utility-scale quantum computer by the end of the decade, said this week that it has raised $300 million. The massive Series A round was co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Lowercarbon Capital, Bain Capital, and others.

Founded by Caltech physicists, Oratomic uses lasers, which act as optical tweezers, to hold individual atoms in place as the basis for its quantum computer.

Evidence reveals that the language of thought is not natural language

Some people find it useful to talk through their problems—but language isn’t necessary for logical reasoning, cognitive neuroscientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research say.

In research published in the journal PNAS, researchers led by MIT associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences Evelina Fedorenko have shown that people can perform well on tasks that require logical reasoning even if their language abilities are severely impaired. What’s more, brain imaging shows that language-processing parts of the brain are not called on for logical reasoning.

Philosophers, linguists and cognitive scientists have debated the relationship between language and thought for thousands of years, with many arguing that we use language to think. There are good reasons to suspect a close relationship between logic and language, acknowledges Hope Kean, a postdoctoral researcher and former K. Lisa Yang, Integrative Computational Neuroscience (ICoN) Center graduate fellow in Fedorenko’s lab.

Quantum optics may turn this rare visual phenomenon into an eye test

Modern life depends on quantum physics. It makes technologies such as GPS navigation, MRI scanners and computer chips possible. Now, the same science may also lead to a new way to test the health of our eyes. A University at Buffalo-led team has used a technique from quantum optics to make a little-known visual pattern produced inside the eye easier to see—potentially opening the door to a new way to test retinal health.

Known as Boehm’s brushes, these faint, two-lobed, bowtie-shaped patterns sometimes appear in peripheral vision when polarized light scatters off structures in the retina. Because people with retinal disease may be less likely to perceive them, scientists have long wondered whether they could serve as a biomarker of retinal health.

However, Boehm’s brushes are often too hard to see, even for people with healthy eyes, to be useful in clinical practice.

Using mechanical vibrations instead of magnetic memory for quantum computing

Quantum computers still face limits when it comes to storing information. Researchers at ETH Zurich are now turning to mechanical vibrations rather than electromagnetic memory. Their new vibrating memory can store significantly more information in a smaller volume. Combined with a suitable computer architecture, it also enables the efficient solution of complex computational problems.

The computer works almost like a guitar. The ETH Zurich quantum physicist Yiwen Chu and her team use tiny mechanical vibrations to store and process information. These vibrations behave much like the vibrating strings of a guitar, which produce musical notes.

What sounds like music is, in fact, quantum physics. The vibrations that Chu and her team work with are far beyond the range of human hearing. They occur deep inside a quantum chip, where they are used to store quantum information.

OpenMandriva Linux says contributor tried to sabotage the project

The OpenMandriva Linux project announced that it was the target of an attempted act of internal sabotage after a dispute among contributors.

The attempted destructive action extended from wiping GitHub repositories to pushing an empty package that could have damaged users’ systems.

OpenMandriva is an independent, community-run Linux distribution, forked from Mandriva Linux in 2012 and maintained by the OpenMandriva Association.

China Built a Working CPU With Transistors Just 3 Atoms Thick

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Researchers develop a new way to build molecular ‘ladders’ for organic electronics

Ladder-type oligothiophenes are an important class of sulfur-containing π-conjugated molecules. Because their fused, ladder-like structures can support efficient electronic interactions, they are widely studied as core motifs for organic semiconductors, organic field-effect transistors, flexible electronics and related molecular materials.

In molecular electronics, however, simply connecting rings together is not enough. The electronic properties of these molecules depend strongly on how the thiophene rings are fused and how sulfur atoms are oriented along the molecular framework. Some arrangements produce highly conjugated systems, while others introduce cross-conjugated segments that can alter the band gap and molecular packing.

Although interest in such mixed conjugated/cross-conjugated molecular systems is growing, a general method for systematically constructing regioisomeric ladder-type oligothiophenes with precise control over thiophene ring orientation has not been well established.

Long-theorized electron-on-helium qubit achieves strong coupling to a single microwave photon

Quantum computers, devices that store and process information leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics, have been found to be promising for tackling some problems that cannot be solved by classical computers. Quantum computers store data in the form of qubits (i.e., quantum bits), units of information that can exist in combinations of different states, instead of being limited to a binary value (i.e., 0 or 1), like classical bits.

For decades, various theoretical physicists have been exploring the possibility of building a quantum computing system using electrons trapped above the surface of superfluid helium, a form of liquid helium cooled to extremely low temperatures. These trapped electrons could ultimately be more isolated from sources of noise (i.e., environmental disturbances) that can disrupt quantum states and lead to computational errors.

Researchers at EeroQ Corporation, a quantum computing company based in Chicago, recently introduced a strategy to enable strong interactions between a single electron floating above superfluid helium and a microwave photon.

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