The intersection of computer science and physics
"It's very early days in quantum computing," Simone Severini, director of Quantum Computing at AWS tellsThe quantum computers built so far have not shown yet to be impactful in business problems, with a choice of five different brands of hardware, with different ways of implementing qubits, the base unit of quantum computing.
"There is lots of talk about quantum computing but the scientific perspective is really the key," Severini tells us."We have a research and development organization called AWS Center for Quantum Computing, the bulk of which is in the campus of CalTech [university] near Los Angeles. We have already built a number of chips but we want a quantum computer than can actually deliver value.
"There is also a short-term perspective," Severini says."Amazon Braket is a service that offers access to quantum computers and everything that you need to interact with them. Program resources, orchestration of quantum and non-quantum resources … the most interesting application of quantum computing today is to learn more about quantum computing of the future."
"This is not a universal computer, meaning that it can only solve certain problems, but for these problems associated with simulating some materials, for example, we're already on the cusp, that if you want to simulate what this machine is doing with a conventional computer, it is not so easy."