D-Wave plans to complete a prototype quantum computer device by the end of 2006; with a version capable of solving commercial problems ready by 2008, says president and CEO Geordie Rose. D-Wave has a nice simplicity: an analog chip made of low-temperature superconductors; to be cooled to -269℃ with liquid helium; not offering traditional complications of quantum computers and lending itself to lithography techniques, easing fabrication. D-Wave patterns an array of loops of low-temperature superconductors such as aluminum and niobium on a chip. When electricity flows through them, the loops act like magnets and "flip" the clockwise to counter-clockwise direction of current flow to minimise magnetic flux.
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