ACEIZE

A company called D-Wave introduced what they called the first commercial quantum computer at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. This computer is said to use a process called adiabatic quantum computing to achieve 16-quibits (quantum bits) of processing speed. D-Wave also claims that they will be able to achieve 1000 quibits within the next year.

This claim has been met with some skepticism. In this AP news release, it is noted that D-Wave themselves are not sure the computer is using true quantum calculations. Also, it is noted that adiabatic quantum computing is not 'true' quantum computing. Although it does use some quantum mechanic principles. Arstechnica.com has more information defining adiabatic computing. I presume that the basic idea behind adiabatic quantum computing comes from thermodynamics, describing a process that changes infinitely slowly

Adding to the skepticism surrounding the D-Wave 'quantum computer' is that the machine has not gone through any sort of peer review, ie. no one has been able to independently verify its function. Part of this problem is due to D-Wave not wanted to move the computer, so a demonstration was done remotely. Using a remote demonstration makes it easy for people to image that any ol machine is hooked up to the visual output being attributed to the machine. Further, the entire concept of adiabatic computing has never undergone peer review. In the Arstechnica.com article Chris Lee states that none of the articles written about adiabatic quantum computing have been published in a peer review journal. None-the-less, D-Wave has been referencing those articles on their website and one would assume basing their applied science on those articles.