According to a study published in the journal “Science”, the quantum computer model D-Wave Two doesn’t seem to bring real benefits in terms of performance compared to classical computers. The article rekindled the controversy started since the introduction of this quantum computer by its manufacturer D-Wave Systems.

A little over a year ago, it was announced that a D-Wave Two computer would be used in the new Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, opened by Google in collaboration with NASA’s Ames Research Center and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). This model uses a 512-qubit quantum processor, amodel more advanced than the previous one, a 128-qubits model, sold the producer have been selling for some years.

Now an international team led by Matthias Troyer of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, has concluded that there is no definitive evidence that the D-Wave Two computer has performance superior to that of classical computers. However, these results haven’t settled the issue at all, so much so that in recent days various comments arrived.

For example, according physicist Daneil Lidar of the University of Southern California (USC), who was part of the team that tested the D-Wave Two computer, in hindsight the problems generated weren’t difficult enough. It’s possible that it was necessary to give the computer more difficult problems to be able to see the performance difference of a classical computer from a quantum computer.

Other considerations came from Google. Some of its engineers have been working with the computer for a year and, although they haven’t revealed full information, now they say that the D-Wave Two has much higher performance than off-the-shelf classical computers.

According to Google, systems optimized to solve certain problems can be competitive with a D-Wave Two. This system is still limited from the point of view of the advantages that a quantum system can have on a classic one and according to Google that’s another limitation. These factors may have led to misleading conclusions that could change if the amount of testing was greater.

In short, the issue of the development and exploitation of quantum computers is still very open. We’re talking about a technological frontier that some companies have just started exploring so it’s inevitable that there are still doubts and especially an untapped potential.

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