Conventional Computing vs Quantum Computing in C++


As the computing world is constantly improvising. Everyday a new device comes into picture which makes previous versions unfit for current technological changes and development. Gone are the days when computers were room sized and calculations take hours.

From vacuum tubes, transistors and integrated circuits to touch screen devices, the technological advancement has changed the computing methods as well. The programming styles for new devices have also changed. Traditional ways of writing programs don’t work for them. The software embedded needs to be efficient, more responsive and interactive.

The basic difference is revolutionized hardware devices that are faster, less heat emissions and can do multiple tasks at the same time. No switching or scheduling of jobs.

Conventional Computing

Refers to the classical phenomenon of computing devices. Conventional computers are basically performing two main tasks. Storing information inside memory and applying algorithms, computation and formulas to that information to produce results based on the requirements.

  • Based on electric circuits that have two states. Off state represented by 0 and ON state represented by 1.

  • The basic building block of conventional computers is a Bit. A bit has two values, either 0 or 1. All the information can be represented using 0’s and 1’s only. For this Unicode has been developed to represent all digits, alphabets, characters, special symbols, newline, linefeed, carriage return etc.

  • Circuits do the calculations and are called logic gates which are formed by combining transistors. All these devices have an On and Off state only.

  • Mostly CMOS transistors are in use. Which are made up of metal-oxide semiconductors.

  • Usually all processing is done in CPU, where there is a Control Unit ( CU ) to manage all calculations and Arithmetic and Logical Unit ( ALU ) that does actual calculations.

  • There are problems that a conventional computer would take billions of years to solve. Which means a solution would never come? Who knows what would be the result? Will it be correct?

Quantum Computing

Basically, it is based on the laws of quantum physics. Based on the possibility that there are more than two possible states. An atom is a quantum particle that can move forward and backward in time and can exist in two places at a time. Quantum computers are aimed to utilize this strange behavior to computing for faster computing power.

  • Based on the laws of quantum physics, where a particle can have more than two states possible.

  • The basic building block here is Qubit. A Quantum bit is based on the phenomenon of spinning electrons. Except 0 and 1, a Qubit has a superposition state which is 0 and 1 at same time. These qubits are isolated from their peripheral environment.

  • All the circuitry is revolutionized using laws of quantum physics.

  • A SQUID device comes into picture, which is Superconducting Quantum interference Device. A very sensitive magnetometer used to measure very subtle magnetic fields based on superconducting loops.

  • Now we have QPUs. The Quantum Processing Unit , that is a quantum chip made of several interconnected qubits.

  • These computers are best for optimization problems like parking of airplanes. Other things like billions of times faster computing speeds, handling tremendous amounts of data, uncrackable encryption standards for data security etc. is changing the computing habits.

Quantum computers would not replace personal computers as not every personal device needs such complex systems. These would be dedicatedly working for complex problems. That is hard to solve today.

Updated on: 03-Aug-2020

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