Source : Perth Now news
A quantum computer powered by a chip no bigger than a postage stamp could get life-saving drugs to patients in record time.
Australian tech company Diraq has recently installed the country’s first quantum computer inside a commercial data centre in Sydney.
Quantum computing is different from a traditional supercomputer and is designed to operate on problems where possible solutions can grow exponentially, such in molecular science.
While the Diraq computer is a prototype, company chief executive Andrew Dzurak has big plans for where the technology could lead.
“The molecules we have in our body or in pharmaceuticals … cannot be calculated with conventional computers,” Mr Dzurak told AAP.
“A quantum computer is able to solve those problems with a fraction of the resources.
“We’re not talking about a factor of five or a factor of 10, we’re talking about factors of millions in terms of efficiency.”
Pharmaceutical companies spending billions on finding and testing possible treatments could save a lot of time and money with the help of Diraq’s computer, Mr Dzurak believes.
But where the computer is housed is equally as interesting for the future viability of big tech – and local resistance to it.
The Diraq machine is housed in a facility in Alexandria owned by the world’s largest data centre company, US-based Equinix.
Security is so tight at the facility it requires going through five separate fingerprint scanners to access Diraq’s cage in the centre.
The quantum computer – particularly Diraq’s silicon-based model – has many advantages over the power-hungry and space-consuming technology used for artificial intelligence.
The machine is powered off a standard-sized silicon semiconductor, similar to the ones used in most modern electronics.
This allows the unit to be quite small compared with AI data racks and can be housed in a cylindrical refrigeration unit roughly the size of a home hot-water heater.
Power and water usage are also a fraction of a traditional data centre, meaning quantum computing is largely immune from many of the well-publicised criticisms of data centres in built-up areas.
But there is still an advantage for Mr Dzurak being inside the tent of the world’s other transformational tech.
“Quantum processors, AI systems and high-performance (supercomputers) … all of these will work together on solving problems,” Mr Dzurak said.
“It just makes a lot of sense to have them all integrated together in one location.”
Ultimately, Mr Dzurak hopes that Diraq will sell thousands of quantum computers to all manner of industries by the end of the decade.
“We are pretty confident when we build our systems and prove they work, we can’t be beaten on price.”
