Scientists at the University of Southern California are putting the first quantum processor through its paces. Housed at USC’s Viterbi Information Sciences Institute, the D-Wave machine now boasts a 512 qubit “Vesuvius” processor.
Using a specific test problem involving eight qubits, we’ve verified that the D-Wave processor performs optimization calculations – finds lowest energy solutions – using a procedure that is consistent with quantum annealing,” said Daniel Lidar, the lead scientist on the project and director of the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center.
The D-Wave machine components are housed in a magnetically shielded box that is kept at temperatures near absolute zero to prevent decoherence. Read the Full Story over at International Science Grid this Week.