Adventure Ausrama Blog

Australian scientists are still working feverishly toward producing a quantum computer. Two kinds of qubits, the building clocks of a quantum computer, have been made. Silicon is the base material which is the normal chip mineral. Below the silicon base, atoms are the working parts. They are the storage medium. More data can be manipulated than in traditional computers. The error rate for quantum computers has been dramatically reduced. Because two teams have made different chips and working computers, it means major production is imminent. Silicon is plentiful and relatively cheap so cost is not a major problem.  There will be a rush to make a working computer and mass produce it. The two systems are different. One uses an embedded phosphorus atom, the other an artificial atom. The Dzurak chip can be made in existing factories as it imitates normal transistors. Both chips can hold memory for 30 seconds which is sufficient to do complex work. Obviously one...

Moore's Law can still be valid. Computer power can continue to double every two years. As the diameter of "wires" in semiconductors get smaller resistance to electrical flow increases. This was thought to be a real barrier to improving computer chips. A team of researchers from the University of Melbourne, University of NSW and Purdue University in the US have made wires from phosphorus only four atoms in diameter. The tiny wires are encased in silicon and conductivity is retained. When the diameter of conventional wires is reduced, resistivity rises exponentially. This means that as computer power has doubled so resistance has doubled. The conductivity in current computers is very poor. Silicon on the surface of the new phosphorus wire isolates it from the general environment, so the flow of electrons is unaffected and is not slowed down. It will be some years before computer circuit boards can be made using the new technology. We are reaching the end-time ...