“We’re at a point where we see that our current product is matching the performance of state-of-the-art traditional computers, which have had 70 years of innovation and trillions of dollars of investment. Over the next few years, we should surpass them,” said Jeremy Hilton, D-Wave’s vice president of processor development, in an email statement.
D-Wave last year introduced the second-generation quantum computer called D-Wave Two which has a “list price north of $10 million,” according a research note from financial firm Sterne Agee on Wednesday. The note had a picture of a D-Wave Two with a list price of $15 million.
Quantum computers from D-Wave have been deployed by organizations including Google, NASA and Lockheed-Martin, though it is not clear if the systems were purchased. The D-Wave Two has a 512 qubit processor, and the company has a 1,000 qubit processor undergoing tests in labs and due for release later this year. D-Wave has said it will release a 2,048-core processor in 2015.
“We are laser focused on the performance of the machine, understanding how the technology is working so we can continue to improve it and solve real world problems,” Hilton said.
D-Wave wants to double its installed base of quantum computers annually, said Sterne Agee financial analyst Alex Kurtz, who met with D-Wave’s management, in the research note.
“The impact that D-Wave Two could have on a specific vertical or market segment is still a moving target and clearly with only three systems deployed today, adoption is still at the very front end of the technology’s life cycle,” the research note said.
D-Wave has pitched its quantum computers as large co-processors ideal for specific calculations in high-performance computing environments. D-Wave is trying to garner interest from the financial services community, and the system could also fit into the SaaS (software as a service) computing model being deployed by companies, Kurtz said.
SOURCE – PCWorld
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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