QUANTUM COMPUTING. PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES

QUANTUM COMPUTING

PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES

I Listen to the recording and fill in the missing words. There are some words you don’t need to use.

shape; computerize; rotated; similar; variations; tears; magnetic; wire; motors; shaping; entirely; analysis; supercomputers; variables; transistors; computing; analyser; electronic; translators; prototypes; promise; gears

1)________ was probably always destined to be 2)________. Yet even as late as the 1930s, this was not 3)________  clear. Early in that decade Vannevar Bush, an American engineer, built a mechanical computer with 4)________ , pulleys and shafts 5)________  by electric 6)________. His “Differential 7)________”, which took up a small room, could solve equations with up to 18 8)________. Quantum computing, which holds the 9)________ of outclassing even the world’s fastest 10)________, at least for certain types of problems, is now at a 11)________ stage in its development. 12)________ are functioning but it is not clear what 13)________ the machines will eventually take. One big question, for example, is whether “qubits”, which are the quantum equivalent of 14)________, will live in tiny loops of superconducting 15)________ cooled to ultra-low temperatures, be ions trapped in 16)________ fields or rely on some other technology.

II In the text find three states of qubits existence that make quantum computing possible.

III  Find words in the text with the following meaning. Use 5 of the words and expressions to write your sentences.

1.    mechanisms that perform specific functions in a machine

2.    determining and calculating by mathematical means

3.    occupy space

4.    series, or processes, the end of which is connected to the beginning

5.    data items that may take on more than one value during the runtime of a program

6.    region around a magnetic material or a moving electric charge within which the force of magnetism acts

7.    move or cause to move in a circle 

8.    be far superior to

9.    completely

10.the process in which someone or something grows or changes and becomes more advanced

11.a first version of a device 

12.the external form, contours, or outline of someone or something

13.in the end

14.to find its solutions, which are the values (numbers, functions, sets, etc.) that fulfill the condition stated by a mathematical expression

15.semiconductor devices

IV Listen to the recording and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

Classical/colossal/classified computers think in “bits”, which can have a value of either 0 or 1. Qubits are availability/fable/capable of “superposition”, meaning they can be in both/broth/rot “states” at the same time. Another key quantum concert/concept/accept is “entanglement”. Qubits can be connection/defected/connected, so that operating on one has an impact/pack/implode on the entangled ones, glowing/allowing/flowing their processing power/our/flower to be harnessed in paralleled/parallel/squirrel. The first reach out/feature/creature makes for computers that have a huge/usage/fuse memory. Superposition means that the capable/capacity/opacity to store data doubles/troubles/dubious with each qubit. A 64-qubit computer has enough memory for 18 sixty billion/quintillion/two million numbers. Entanglement then allows operate on/operating/operations at lightning speed. Qubits are fed up/makes up/set up according to an analogous/algorithm/rhythm suitable for a chosen problem/problematic/system; the system applies the rules of quantum mechanics until it reaches a state that represents the answer. Reaching this point will be friendly/unfriendly/fiendishly difficult.

Although researchers/searching/feature have mastered the art of setting up qubits, getting them to operate flaw less/far less/flawlessly is still an unsolved problem. Since any outside influence/inflation/influenced, such as vibration or heat, can make these deflated/debate/delicate beasts lose their one-and zero-ness, or “decohere”, they have to be kept in complete isolation/solution/equations (hence the glow/ultralow/below temperatures, which slow atoms’ movement). Errors also need to be detected/affected/defected and corrected with the quelp/felt/help of many other qubits. Since large numbers of qubits appear unachievable/achievable/archived for at least a decade, the question of how quantum computers could be put to practised/practical/practically use had not been on researchers’ minds until recently. This started to change a double/couple/coup of years ago, when hardware-makers managed to build machines with more than a couple of qubits.

V Find words in the text with the following meaning. Use 5 of the words and expressions to write your sentences.

1.    having the ability to do something

2.    a thousand raised to the power of six (a number equal to 1 followed by 18 zeros)

3.    to become skilled in the use of something
4.    brought together, associated

5.    effect or influence

6.    to control and make use of something

7.    extremely large

8.    the amount that something can contain

9.    two things

10.mistakes

11.abstract idea

12.to serve as a sign or symbol of something

13.               extremely (difficult)

14.having no imperfection (adverb)

15.from this source or origin

16.a numerical quantity that is assigned or is determined by calculation or measurement

17.               discover or identify

VI Answer the question.

1 What is the difference between thinking of classical and quantum computers?

2 What allows quantum computers to have a huge memory?

3 What does the term “entanglement” mean?

4 What is superposition?

5 What rules do quantum computers use to find answers? Is reaching this state easy?

6 What can influence the performance of qubits ?How can they be protected from this negative influence?

7 What is error-correction in quantum computers like?

VII Look at the text below and predict which figures are missing from gaps (A-H). Listen and check.

50-100;  2016; 50; 128; 5; 2017; 20; 72; 50

IBM led the way in A)______ with a B)_____-qubit 1)_____ and then a C)____-qubit one in D)_______. Its latest “quantum 2)_____ unit” (QPU), which was 3)_____ last November, has D)_____, one qubit more than Intel’s. Both were overtaken in March by Google’s Bristlecone, with E)____ qubits. Rigetti, a 4)_____, recently said that it is building a F)____-qubit system (although more doesn’t necessarily mean 5)_____: some qubits are more error-prone than others and there are no 6)_____ agreed benchmarks to measure their 7)_____). Meanwhile, classical computers have been getting better at 8)_____ quantum ones (of up to around G)_______ qubits), making it easier to test algorithms and 9)_____.

This pace of 10)_____ recently won the blessing of a luminary of the quantum field, John Preskill of the California Institute of 11)_____. “Quantum computers with H)_____ qubits may be able to perform tasks which surpass the 12)_____ of today’s classical digital computers,” he wrote in a 13)_____, calling such devices “noisy intermediate-scale quantum” (or NISQ, with “noisy” meaning that the qubits will remain 14)_____ -prone for some time to come).

Big 15)_____ are trying to work out what quantum computing might mean for them, says Michael Brett of QxBranch, a startup. Chemicals 16)_____ such as BASF and Dow-DuPont want to understand whether the technology could help them  “compute” the 17)_____ of useful new materials, such as catalysts to reduce the 18)_____ used to make fertilisers. 19)_____, including Barclays and JPMorgan Chase, hope to use them for tasks such as adjusting 20)_____ risk. Games-makers are also interested in using quantum computing to get 21)_____ to behave more like the 22)_____ world.

VIII Listen to the recording again and fill in the blanks (1-22) in text in task VIII.

IX Find words in the text with the following meaning. Use 5 of the words and expressions to write your sentences.

1.   a substance that enables a chemical reaction to proceed at a usually faster rate

2.   to catch up with and pass by somebody or something

3.    a newly established business

4.   to give notice of the arrival or readiness of (something)

5.   to become better, greater, or stronger than

6.    the degree of excellence

7.    approval and support

8.   a person of prominence or brilliant achievement

9.    computer software packages that perform a specific function

10.a standard against which things may be compared

11.               potentials for an indicated use 

12.understand

13.               to carry out an action 

14.               a substance (such as a chemical mixture) used to make soil more fertile

X Answer the questions.

1 What companies competed to create a quantum unit? What units did each of them create?

2 What do scholars and researchers think about qubits and their potential use?

3 What big companies are interested in qubits? What sectors of economy do these companies belong to?

4 What problems do these companies hope to solve with the help of quantum computing?

5 What are the standards or benchmarks for measuring qubit quality?

XI Listen to the recording and fill in the missing words. Use all the words in the list.

Research; technology; initiative; programs; area; software; mainframe; communications; language; tools; government; laboratory; computing clouds; efforts; applications; universities; notably; encryption; intend; field; integrated; emphasises; classical; classes; simulation; hardware; specifically; global; quantum; specific; data centres; supremacy;  worry; spending; experiments; intelligence; triggered; targeted; observers; programmes; artificial-intelligence

IBM has been working in the 1)_______ longest. Arvind Krishna, 2)_______ director of its research arm, compares its 3)_______ to how IBM created a market for 4)_______ computers in the 1960s. It started quantum 5)_______ in the 1970s; in 2016 it put its 5-qubit quantum computer online so others could use it and start writing 6)_______ (something it calls Q Experience). It has since designed 7)_______ for programmers, helped MIT to develop online quantum 8)_______ and created a network of firms as well as other 9)_______ to explore practical 10)_______. The competition is not far behind. Last month Google released Cirq, a kit of 11)_______ tools. Rigetti has put a machine with a16-qubit QPU online. IonQ, another 12)_______ startup, has built a trapped-ion machine, which is easier to program. And then there is Microsoft. Like IBM, it wants to build an “end-to-end system”, in the words of Todd Holmdahl, head of its 13)_______ arm. Again like IBM, it offers a “quantum development kit” and even a special programming 14)_______ called Q#. But any code written in it will have to run on 15)_______ software for years. Microsoft’s quantum computer is still a work in progress, since the firm is betting on an untested but much less error-prone “topological” qubit. IBM, Google and Microsoft are 16)_______ heavily to lure developers and applications to their respective platforms. IBM 17)_______ the heavy usage of Q Experience: it now has more than 90,000 users, who have run 5m 18)_______ and published 110 papers. Hartmut Neven, who heads quantum efforts at Google, says its toolkit is 19)_______ at “professional programmers”. He insists that his team will soon achieve “quantum 20)_______”, meaning it will show that its quantum computer is able to solve a problem faster than a 21)_______ one (a feat critics already call a stunt, because the problem is unlikely to be one of practical relevance). Microsoft, for its part, has tightly 22)_______ its quantum tools with other programming software to make it easier for classical developers to use them.

Whatever the outcome, none of the hardware will end up in other firms’ 23)____   ___, let alone on people’s desktops, in the near future. Instead, quantum computers will find a home in 24)___    ____ operated by Google, IBM and Microsoft (and also by Amazon and China’s Alibaba, which have smaller quantum 25)_______). Since the machines will be good only at very 26)_______ tasks for many years to come, the firms 27)_______ to use them mostly as “accelerators”, which will take over when 28)_______ needed, much like computers with superfast 29)_______ (AI) chips today.

Other than these firms, only 30)_______ agencies are likely to have their own quantum computers within the next few decades. National armed forces and 31)_______ services, 32)_______ those of America and China, have long funded the 33)_______ and are likely to continue doing so. They 34)_______ that quantum-computing machines might one day be able to crack the world’s best 35)_______, which could give the country that gets there first the capability to decode secret 36)_______ or to hack banks. As in AI, China intends to lead the world in quantum 37)_______. The country has announced plans to spend more than $10bn to build a national 38)_______ for quantum science, to open in 2020. This has 39)_______ efforts in Washington, DC, to create a “National Quantum Initiative”, which some 40)_______ have compared to America’s nuclear programme of the 1940s. The European Union launched a quantum-research 41)_______ in 2016 and backed it with more than $1bn.

 XII Answer the questions.

1  What software can be used with quantum computers?

2 What programming languages can be used to work with quantum computers?

3 What are the advantages and disadvantages of the programming for quantum computers?

4 What companies are working on quantum computer hardware?

5 When will people have quantum computers in their homes according to the forecasts?

6 What dangers does the development of quantum computing have for governments?

7 What countries are leaders in quantum computing research? What countries want to lead this field?

8 What countries or governments have started funding quantum computing research?

XIII  Look at the texts in previous tasks. Restore the collocations. Find the contexts the collocations were used in the texts. Use 6 collocations in your sentences.

solve		errors
quantum		applications
magnetic		rules
rely on		software
store		language
apply		arm
quantum		efforts
mastered		way
operate		clouds
unsolved		out
detect		computing
correct		encryption
lead the		agencies
pace		forces
perform		technology
digital		data
work		services
research		mechanics
mainframe		initiative
practical		problem
kit of		centres
programming		flawlessly
simulation		secret communications
data		equations
computing		tasks
government		computers
armed		banks
intelligence		laboratory
crack		errors
decode		of development tools
hack		fields
national		the art
trigger		software
launched		computers

XIV OVER TO YOU. Use the texts and recordings to summarize the information you learnt about quantum computers. Focus on 1) what quantum computers are like; 2) properties and characteristics of qubits compared to bits; 3) possibilities qubits have and problems their usage creates; 3) companies that compete in the field of quantum computing; 4) non-IT companies interested in using quantum computers in their research and work; 5) software and tools that exist in the field of quantum computing today; 6) government initiatives in quantum computers development; 7) your views or predictions as to the future of quantum computers.