* 2008 and beyond: What’s REALLY cold
Just when we think that the industry has slowed down and there’s nothing new to be discovered, revolutionary ideas get our imagination stirred up again. After all, current technology is limited only by our imagination. A century ago, the atom was defined as “the smallest particle of matter, which cannot be further subdivided.” So much for that definition! Today, our thoughts turn to superconductors and quantum computers, and the new communications infrastructure we’d need to design to enable quantum machines to talk to each other.
A couple of weeks ago, the PBS “Nova” series aired a two-part special on “Cold” and “Absolute Zero.” The last chapter of the program (available here) included a fascinating discussion of sending a light source into a Bose-Einstein condensate and using this “to [store] and even process information.”
This could, as pointed out in the show, lead to quantum computers. And, again to quote: “Unlike ordinary computers, where each decision is based around a bit of information and is either a zero or a one, in the quantum world, the rules change.”
Of course, once we have single quantum computers, we’ll be wanting the quantum computers to communicate with each other. And this may create yet another need for yet another new communications infrastructure.
Superconductors may play an important part of this new infrastructure. For instance, we’re already limiting our transmission speeds by using optical fiber. (Due to the index of refraction of glass, a signal in optical fiber travels at roughly two-thirds the speed of light in a vacuum.) However, according to Rex Adelberger of Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., the signal in a copper wire travels at a speed closer to 90% of the speed of light – depending on a wide variety of parameters.
As discussed with Adelberger, the primary advantage of using superconductors for information transmission would not be for speed improvements. Rather, the primary advantage would be to have the speed of electrical transmission with the low signal loss of fiber optics – or even orders of magnitude less signal loss. And every time you can eliminate a repeater, you gain significant throughput because of the delay introduced by the repeater.
By the way, please note that today is not April 1. What we’re talking about here could indeed be a part of the future, and it has a much better chance than Steve’s Tachyon Transmission Mode (TTM) or Graviton-Based Networking, as presented here.
