Tiniest Transistor Ever Runs Electric Current through a Single Atom

Question: Will it be powerful enough to run Crysis at max settings?

LOL...

Anyways, can someone tell me how useful it is if a qubit is a 1 AND a 0 at the same time. I mean, how do you understand that language if the qubit means both yes and no.

rpenri: A bit is either 0 or 1. A byte is 8 bits. Megabyte is 1 million.. etc. If you have the possibility of a 3rd state, then you can essentially increase the amount of storage and speed of data calculation without increasing the amount of area used for the processor or memory. This isnt by a flat 33% either, because you have a byte that represents characters so for instance binary representation for the letter "A" could be 01000001, with a third state instead of just 0's and 1's, you can geometrically increase the amount of data that can be represented. So what used to take 16 bits, can be accomplished with say 4 qbits.

Its basically a magnitude of efficiency. Something like making next years model car get 500 miles per gallon without increasing cost or giving anything up.

I seriously can't wait untill the first consumer, full quantum, q-computer comes out.

rpenri - Well most people do not know how computers work now, but that does not stop them from being quite functional with them. Computers using bindary can only do 2 things. Compare and subtract. A few people figured out how to make a computer to be able to add by using only subtraction and everyone else builds on top of that work.

The same will be the case in this next type of computer. They'll work out simple functions to create a base. Then others will expand them to do everything needed.

Okay, so it's being used as a third state? I didn't know that before.

So, basically there's no 1 or 0, on or off, yes or no anymore. It's now A, B or C?

That would mean that a new basic computer language for CPUs must be written to take advantage of this new "3rd state". How would one right down it down anyway? ABA.CAB.CCA.BBC or something like that? Wouldn't even be that long either, then. It would probably be like CBA.BBC.

Instead of "010" meaning "2", it could just be "B" to represent "2".

Wow...that's a big performance gain. I see why it's getting so much attention.

That third state thing is misleading and confusing.

A normal transistor can have two values, "1" or "0". By lining up transistors the computer can count with these. In standard systems they are grouped in eights, 00000000, and it counts.
We count with a base ten system, when we get to ten we start over 1,2,3... 11,12,13... 21,22,23... etc. But a computer has a base two system, called binary, when it counts to one, it starts over. So the value 101 in binary is the equivalent of 5 in a base ten system, 001=(1),010=(2),011=(3),100=(4),101=(5).

You can calculate the number of possibilities in a string of characters by taking the number of different characters, raised to the power of how many places there are.
So with a byte, or eight bits, you have binary which has two characters for each place, "1" "0", and you have eight places, 00000001. So you take two raised to the eighth power and you get 2^8, which is equal to 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2= 256.

A quantum computer has a base four system, instead of a base two. It can hold a "1" and "0" at the same time, so it has "00, 01, 10,or 11" as its values.

So lets say you have four places, with binary you get 2^4, which is 2x2x2x2= 16 different possibilities.
Now put in the base four system that would come with a quantum computer, and you then have 4^4, which is 4x4x4x4= 256

Hows that for efficiency? and 4^8 is equal to 65536.

@Marcopolo - Very good yet simple explanation of the difference between bianary, and quaternary computing for those who don't quite understand the gains to be had.