Controversial Computer Is at Least a Little Quantum Mechanical - ScienceNOW

Controversial Computer Is at Least a Little Quantum Mechanical - ScienceNOW: D-Wave researchers have taken a different tack, known as “adiabatic quantum computing” or “quantum annealing.” They begin with a set of noninteracting qubits—in their rig, little rings of superconductor that can carry current either one way or the other or both ways at once—and put the rings in their lowest energy “ground state." To perform the computation, the researchers slowly turn on various interactions among the qubits. If they’ve done things right, then the ground state of the noninteracting system should naturally evolve into the ground state of the interacting system and reveal the answer to the problem encoded in the interactions.