Introduction to Quantum Computing

History of Quantum Computing

In the year 1980 Russian mathematician Yuri Manin proposed an idea of quantum computer in his book “Computable and Uncomputable”. The next year 1981 was a breakthrough year for Quantum computing as one of the most renowned physicist of his time , Richard Feynman argued that it is impossible to simulate a quantum system on a classical computer in an efficient way. Hence he proposed a basic model of quantum computer.

British physicist David Deutsch proposed an universal quantum computer in 1985 at university of Oxford. A universal quantum computer is able to simulate any other quantum computer.

In 1994 , Peter Shor developed an quantum algorithm for factoring large integers known as Shor’s algorithm. This allows quantum computers to factor large integers quickly but a classical computer takes huge amount of time for the same task. The discovery of this algorithm generates a great interest in quantum computing and even the United States Government organized a workshop on quantum computing in the same year.

Since then there has been a tremendous improvement in this field. Many companies such as Microsoft and IBM are investing heavily on the development of a large scale quantum computers which can be able to solve a lot of problems that seems impossible with classical computers.

Microsoft has developed a language Q# (Q sharp) to write programs for quantum computers.

IBM has set up IBM Q Experience - a quantum computing environment, accessible over internet where you can create and simulate your own quantum programs.