There's been a lot of talk lately about how close we are to quantum computing for the masses. Now, Canadian company D-Wave claims to have done it with their D-Wave One. Except, of course, that commercially-available really means millionaire-available.


The D-Wave One represents the successes the D-Wave engineers have reached in the area of quantum annealing, as shown in a paper they submitted to Nature. Even though D-Wave is spare in the details department, the computer's 128-qubit processor is designed to tackle heavy-duty optimization and complex number theory problems. Conventional general-purpose computers will continue to outpace it in other areas, but this particular area of supercomputing could see AI taken a big step forward.

I'm just curious as to who's going to drop that kind of money for those specific computing problems. Time will tell. [Tom's Hardware]