quantum computing

49 Articles

Quasi-Quantifying Qubits For 100 Quid

July 14, 2025 by 3 Comments

As part of his multi-year project to build a quantum computer, hacakday.io poster [skywo1f] has shared with us his most recent accomplishment — a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer, which he built for less than $100.

The NMR spectrometer is designed to disturb protons, which naturally line up according to the Earth’s magnetic field, using an electric coil. Once disturbed, the protons nutate (a fancy physics word for wobble), and flip quantum spin states. [skywo1f]’s NMR device can detect these spin state changes, as he demonstrates with a series of control experiments designed to eliminate sources of false positives (which can be annoyingly prevalent in experimental physics). His newest experimental device includes a number of improvements over previous iterations, including proper shielding, quieter power topology, and better coil winding in the core of the device. Everything was assembled with cost in mind, while remaining sensitive enough to conduct experiments — the whole thing is even driven by a Raspberry Pi Pico.

Here at Hackaday, we love to see experiments that should be happening in million-dollar laboratories chugging along on kitchen tables, like this magnetohydrodynamic drive system or some good old-fashioned PCB etching. [skywo1f] doesn’t seem to be running any quantum calculations yet, but the NMR device is an important building block in one flavor of quantum computer, so we’re excited to see where he takes his work next.

Superconductivity News: What Makes Floquet Majorana Fermions Special For Quantum Computing?

May 7, 2025 by 13 Comments

Researchers from the USA and India have proposed that Floquet Majorana fermions may improve quantum computing by controlling superconducting currents, potentially reducing errors and increasing stability.

In a study published in Physical Review Letters that was co-authored by [Babak Seradjeh], a Professor of Physics at Indiana University Bloomington, and theoretical physicists [Rekha Kumari] and [Arijit Kundu], from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, the scientists validate their theory using numerical simulations.

Continue reading “Superconductivity News: What Makes Floquet Majorana Fermions Special For Quantum Computing?” →

Microsoft (Again) Claims Topological Quantum Computing With Majorana Zero Mode Anyons

February 20, 2025 by 5 Comments

As the fundamental flaw of today’s quantum computers, improving qubit stability remains the focus of much research in this field. One such stability attempt involves so-called topological quantum computing with the use of anyons, which are two-dimensional quasiparticles. Such an approach has been claimed by Microsoft in a recent paper in Nature. This comes a few years after an earlier claim by Microsoft for much the same feat, which was found to be based on faulty science and hence retracted.

The claimed creation of anyons here involves Majorana fermions, which differ from the much more typical Dirac fermions. These Majorana fermions are bound with other such fermions as a Majorana zero mode (MZM), forming anyons that are intertwined (braided) to form what are in effect logic gates. In the Nature paper the Microsoft researchers demonstrate a superconducting indium-arsenide (InAs) nanowire-based device featuring a read-out circuit  (quantum dot interferometer) with the capacitance of one of the quantum dots said to vary in a way that suggests that the nanowire device-under-test demonstrates the presence of MZMs at either end of the wire.

Microsoft has a dedicated website to their quantum computing efforts, though it remains essential to stress that this is not a confirmation until their research is replicated by independent researchers. If confirmed, MZMs could provide a way to create more reliable quantum computing circuitry that does not have to lean so heavily on error correction to get any usable output. Other, competing efforts here include such things as hybrid mechanical qubits and antimony-based qubits that should be more stable owing to their eight spin configurations.

8-Bit Computers Crunch Advanced Scientific Computations

December 1, 2024 by 37 Comments

Although largely relegated to retrocomputing enthusiasts and embedded systems or microcontrollers now, there was a time when there were no other computers available other than those with 8-bit processors. The late 70s and early 80s would have seen computers with processors like the Motorola 6800 or Intel 8080 as the top-of-the-line equipment and, while underpowered by modern standards, these machines can do quite a bit of useful work even today. Mathematician [Jean Michel Sellier] wanted to demonstrate this so he set up a Commodore 64 to study some concepts like simulating a quantum computer.

The computer programs he’s written to do this work are in BASIC, a common high-level language of the era designed for ease of use. To simulate the quantum computer he sets up a matrix-vector multiplication but simplifies it using conditional logic. Everything is shown using the LIST command so those with access to older hardware like this can follow along. From there this quantum computer even goes as far as demonstrating a quantum full adder.

There are a number of other videos on other topics available as well. For example, there’s an AmigaBasic program that simulates quantum wave packets and a QBasic program that helps visualize the statistical likelihood of finding an electron at various locations around a hydrogen nucleus. While not likely to displace any supercomputing platforms anytime soon, it’s a good look at how you don’t need a lot of computing power in all situations. And, if you need a refresher on some of these concepts, there’s an overview on how modern quantum computers work here.

IBM’s Latest Quantum Supercomputer Idea: The Hybrid Classical-Quantum System

August 28, 2024 by 15 Comments

Although quantum processors exist today, they are still a long way off from becoming practical replacements for classical computers. This is due to many practical considerations, not the least of which are factors such as the need for cryogenic cooling and external noise affecting the system necessitating a level of error-correction which does not exist yet. To somewhat work around these limitations, IBM has now pitched the idea of a hybrid quantum-classical computer (marketed as ‘quantum-centric supercomputing’), which as the name suggests combines the strengths of both to create a classical system with what is effectively a quantum co-processor.

IBM readily admits that nobody has yet demonstrated quantum advantage, i.e. that a quantum computer is actually better at tasks than a classical computer, but they figure that by aiming for quantum utility (i.e. co-processor level), it could conceivably accelerate certain tasks for a classical computer much like how a graphics processing unit (GPU) is used to offload everything from rendering graphics to massively parallel computing tasks courtesy of its beefy vector processing capacity. IBM’s System Two is purported to demonstrate this when it releases.

What the outcome here will be is hard to say, as the referenced 2023 quantum utility demonstration paper involving an Ising model was repeatedly destroyed by classical computers and even trolled by a Commodore 64-based version. Thus, at the very least IBM’s new quantum utility focus ought to keep providing us with more popcorn moments like those, and maybe a usable quantum system will roll out by the 2030s if IBM’s projected timeline holds up.