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Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by krastanov on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:42PM (#29245445)
The pipes you mentioned are microwave conduits (for various control signals).
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by jjoonathan on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:48PM (#29245519)
0.141" semi-rigid coax, diameter of champions.
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by rbanffy on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @04:15PM (#29246436)
> 0.141" semi-rigid coax, diameter of champions.

I wonder if we measure it more precisely we'll get to something closer to 1.4142135623730950488...

Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by TaylorAlexander on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @06:02PM (#29247361)
It would be a bit of a surprise since the unit of measure is inches and I'm not sure what inches would have to do with quantum computing. I feel like the inch is essentially a random factor here.
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by rbanffy on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @06:20PM (#29247511)
I’d make this cable as a form of art.
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by madengr on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @10:21PM (#29248989)
Close, as the ratio of the inner and outer conductor diameters, to exactly get 50 Ohms, is an irrational number.
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by jazzyjackson on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:50PM (#29245549)
Thanks! Is my assumption of liquid helium running somewhere correct? I figure that's the only way to reach the temperatures required (single digit kelvins, no?)
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by krastanov on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:56PM (#29245615)
It is even worse than single digit Kelvin.

Liquid Nitrogen with pumping: 40 K for a few thousand dollars.

Run of the mill Liquid Helium: 4 K for tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But for these devices you need 15mK which is reachable only if you mix two different isotopes of Helium and pump the mixture into vacuum. Such a device is up to 1M$ and more.

And the insides of that device are in vacuum (actually, air freezing into ice on top of the chip can be a problem). The brass is basically the heat conductor between the chip and the cold side of your pumped He mixture (which is *not* just sloshing inside the whole body of the cryostat where the chips are).

Another reason you do not want the He sloshing around is because you will be opening this to make changes to the device and do not want all the extremely expensive He3 (the special isotope you need for the mixture) to be lost.

Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by cashsterling on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @03:16PM (#29245846)
FWIW... small DR's are under 400k USD. The big ones are ~1M USD or more.
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by robin_reala on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @04:15PM (#29246447)
What’s a DR? Something refrigerator?
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by reportingsjr on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @04:42PM (#29246687)
Dilution refrigerator. They are the type of refrigerator used to chill quantum computing devices. The wikipedia article has a pretty good description of how they work. It took me a few reads to understand it!
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by zackbloom on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @02:52PM (#29245573)
It's much colder than that, single-digit millikelvin. They use He-3/4 dilution refrigerators [1]. Getting things cold and electromagnetically-quiet enough that the quantum state doesn't collapse is a big challenge in the field.

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator

Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by thomasjudge on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @11:58PM (#29249436)
And if you need colder than 2mk, nuclear demagnetization:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_refrigeration#Nuclear...

Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by a9h74j on Tuesday November 16, 2021 @06:53PM (#29247798)
And some people think the brain can be deterministic at 300K.
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by GoblinSlayer on Wednesday November 17, 2021 @05:38AM (#29251270)
Why not? Computers are deterministic at higher temperatures.
Re:IBM unveils 127-qubit quantum processor by a9h74j on Friday November 19, 2021 @07:55PM (#29284575)
Even assuming a computer model, think of an analog computer with long integration times, potentially high gain for thermal noise terms, simulating a chaotic system.

Or, look at literature on error rates for people performing simple repetitive tasks.