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Q to R - Quantum computing to RSS (Really simple syndication)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2010

Robert Plant  and
Stephen Murrell
Robert Plant
Affiliation:
University of Miami
Stephen Murrell
Affiliation:
University of Miami
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Summary

Foundation Concept: Bit.

Definition: The use of quantum mechanics, the laws governing sub-microscopic particles, in the construction of computing and communication devices.

Overview

Quantum computing is firmly in the domain of science fiction, and can be expected to stay there for quite some while. Very basic experiments confirming that the underlying ideas are at least viable have been performed successfully, but the construction of usable computing or communications devices is at best very distant. We are currently at a stage akin to having discovered that electricity does actually exist; people can start thinking about the possibility of building computers, but the possibility is far off, and it may never happen.

Quantum mechanics governs the behavior of very small particles, single atoms and smaller, and shows that they do not behave as experience of the larger world would lead us to expect. The two key concepts that might turn out to be practically useful are Superposition and Entanglement.

In conventional computing, a switch or logic element is either on or off, 1 or 0. Ten logic elements give ten things that can be on or off in any combination, resulting in 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 1024 different states. A search through 1024 possibilities is performed by stepping 10 such elements through all possible combinations of states in turn.

Type
Chapter
Information
An Executive's Guide to Information Technology
Principles, Business Models, and Terminology
 , pp. 277 - 288
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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References

Hirvensalo, M. (2001). Quantum Computing (New York, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D. Patterson, G. Gibson, and R. Katz (1988). “A case for redundant arrays of inexpensive disks,” in SIGMOD 1998, Proceedings ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, ed. L. M. Haas and A. Tiwary (Seattle, WA, ACM Press), pp. 109–116.
Vadala, D. (2002). Managing RAID on Linux (Sebastopol, CA, O'Reilly Press).Google Scholar
Associated terminology: Backup, Information-lifecycle management.
Kerr, J. and Hunter, R. (1994). Inside RAD (New York, McGraw-Hill).Google Scholar
Associated terminology: Joint application development, CAD/CAM.
Ince, D. (1991). Software Quality and Reliability: Tools and Methods (London, Chapman and Hall).Google Scholar
Associated terminology: Formal methods, RAID, Y2K problem.
H. Stockman (1948). “Communication by means of reflected power,” Proceedings of the I. R.E., pp. 1196–1204.
J. Landt (2005). “The history of RFID,” IEEE Potentials, Volume 24, Issue 4, pp. 8–11.CrossRef
EPCglobal Inc. (2005). “EPC radio-frequency identity protocols Class-1 Generation-2 UHF RFID conformance requirements,” http://www.epcglobalinc.org.
D. Ewalt (2003). “Gillette orders 500 million RFID tags,” Information Week, January 6.
Associated terminology: Bar code, Business process re-engineering.
Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/overview/.
Kortenkamp, D., Bonasso, R., and Murphy, R. (1998). AI-based Mobile Robots: Case Studies of Successful Robot Systems (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press).
Associated terminology: Neural networks, Machine learning.
Hammersley, B. (2003). Content Syndication with RSS (Sebastopol, CA, O'Reilly Press).Google Scholar
Associated terminology: Web services, Client–server.

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