Intel puts $50 million into quantum computing collaboration

On Thursday, the US chip colossus Intel announced that it is going to put $50 million and engineering resources into an alliance on quantum computing. The alliance is likely to radically advance complex problem-solving.

Intel Corporation is planning a 10-year partnership with Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and TNO, the Dutch Organization for Applied Research. They will work together to make real the type of quantum computing that is would be capable of tackling seemingly insurmountable problems.

According to Intel, the potential applications for the computing power comprise of intricate simulations, including large-scale financial analysis and better drug development.

Mike Mayberry, managing director of Intel Labs said, "A fully functioning quantum computer is at least a dozen years away, but the practical and theoretical research efforts we're announcing today mark an important milestone in the journey to bring it closer to reality".

The quantum computers are not similar to digital computers they use quantum bits that have the ability to exist in multiple states at the same time. It will offer the potential to compute a large number of calculations simultaneously, speeding up results.

A related aim is to make qubits achieve what scientists call an entangled state and behave like they are linked while staying physically apart. In case such a thing happens, according to proponents quantum computers could carry a lot more calculations simultaneously as compared to today's fastest computers.

Since decades, scientists have been trying to apply quantum physics to computing. They have researchers at companies, including International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. also working actively in the field.