The business of quantum computers
量子計算機蘊藏的商機
Uncertainty principals
不確定性原理
Quantum computing is attracting commercial interest
量子計算正在吸引商業利益
Big, stable quantum computers would be useful devices.
大型穩定量子計算機將擁有可觀的用武之地。
By exploiting the counter-intuitive properties of quantum mechanics, they could perform some calculations (though only some) faster than any conceivable non-quantum machine. For one thing, they would probably be much more rapid than any classical computer at searching a database—an elemental operation with a thousand uses.
藉助於量子力學的反直覺特性， 量子計算機執行某些（儘管數量有限）計算的速度將超過任何可想見的非量子計算機器。首先，量子計算機檢索資料庫——有著豐富用途的一種基本操作——的速度或將遠超任何一款經典計算機。
They would be quicker at more specific tasks, too.Precisely simulating all but the simplest chemical reactions is mathematically intractable for any non-quantum computer, no matter how huge. A quantum computer could do this, aiding the development of drugs, catalysts and batteries.
其次，量子計算機執行細節任務的速度可能也會更快。精確模擬哪怕是最簡單的化學反應時所需處理的數學工作對任何一臺非量子計算機而言，無論是多大的非量子計算機，都是相當棘手的。 量子計算機就能做到這一點，助力藥物研發、催化劑研發和電池研發等工作。
Quantum computers would also speed up the analysis of optimisation problems,which try to find the best way to juggle many variables in order to maximise a particular outcome. That would be a boon to the transport industry (by finding efficient routes) and to finance(by maximising profits given a set of constraints).
量子計算機還能加速優化問題的分析環節，優化問題指的就是試圖找出最佳辦法調控多個變量，以最大化特定結果這類問題。 這對運輸業(通過找出高效路線)和金融業(在一系列約束條件下將利潤最大化)而言都是一大福音。
Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management consultancy, foresees quantum computers improving the operating income of their users by between $450bn and $850bn a year by 2050.Unfortunately, big, stable quantum computers do not yet exist. But small, ornery, unstable ones do.
據管理諮詢公司波士頓諮詢集團(BCG)預測，到2050年，量子計算機每年預計能給用戶帶來高達4500億~8500億美元的運營收入。遺憾的是，大型穩定量子計算機目前尚未面世。不過，小型、「劣質」又不太穩定的量子計算機已經存在。
John Preskill, a quantum-computing researcher at the California Institute of Technology,dubs such machines NISQS—Noisy, Intermediate-Scale Quantum computers.
加州理工學院量子計算研究員約翰·普雷斯基爾 給這種機器取了個名字——NISQS，意為「嘈雜的中等規模量子計算機」。
Some see NISQS as mere stepping stones towards size and stability,and that is certainly the goal of those working on them.A growing number of companies and investors, however,are hopeful that NISQS themselves will be able to do useful work in the meantime.
一些人認為NISQS僅僅是通向成規模且穩定的量子計算機的墊腳石， 這恰好就是致力於研究NISQS的研究員們的目標。 然而，越來越多的企業和投資方開始希望， NISQS本身在通往更完善的量子計算機的道路上就能發光發熱。
These firms are hunting for "quantum advantage"—a way in which even today's limited machines might have an impact on their bottom lines, orthose of their customers. For most of the field's history, quantum-computing research has been backed by governments or big information-technology firms.Increasingly, though, the venture-capital (VC) industry is showing an interest.
他們追求的便是「量子優勢」—— 也即即便是當今這些作用有限的機器也能對他們或是他們客戶的盈虧底線產生一定影響的地方。 縱觀該領域的歷史，量子計算研究大部分時間都是政府或大型信息技術企業在推動。 儘管如此，風險投資(Vc)行業也對這一領域表現出了越來越濃的興趣。
PitchBook, a research firm based in Seattle,has tracked $495m of vc money that has been invested in quantum computing so far this year—almost double last year's total. Dozens of startups are competing with the incumbent tech giants.
總部位於西雅圖的研究機構PitchBook 追蹤的結果顯示，今年以來，量子計算領域已經收到了4.95億美元的風投資金—— 幾乎是去年總額的兩倍。還有數十家初創企業向當前的科技巨頭髮起了競爭。
And established companies, such as Daimler, a carmaker, and Goldman Sachs, a bank,are beginning to experiment with the nascent industry\\\\'s products,hoping that, if they can master them, they will bestow an advantage over their competitors. Much of the money is going towards building hardware.
老牌公司，如汽車製造商戴姆勒和高盛銀行， 已經開始試水這一新興行業的各種產品， 希望掌握了這些產品就能比各自的競爭對手搶先一步佔據優勢。 大部分資金都流向了打造硬體方面。
Doug Finke, a physicist who runs the Quantum Computing Report, which focuses on the nascent industry,is aware of 87 organisations, big and small, trying to construct quantum computers. Unlike classical computing, which had settled by the 1970s on silicon transistors as the units of computation,there is, as yet, no consensus on the best way to build a quantum computer.
道格·芬克，物理學家兼《量子計算報告》——一份專注於量子計算這一新興行業動態的刊物——創刊人， 就他了解，有87個大大小小的機構都在著手組建量子計算機。與上世紀70年代就已基本定型的以矽電晶體為計算單位的經典計算不同的是， 到目前為止，就搭建量子計算機的最佳方式這一問題的共識依然有待達成。
IonQ, a firm in Maryland that has raised $84m,uses trapped ytterbium ions, manipulated by lasers, to perform its calculations.Rigetti Computing, a Californian company which announced earlier this month that it would be building a quantum computer for the British government, Rigetti Computing employs microwaves to control pairs of electrons flowing through superconducting circuits.
位於馬裡蘭州的IonQ公司已經籌集到8400萬美元， 通過使用被捕獲的，雷射操控的鐿離子進行量子計算。位於加州，並於本月初宣布， 將為英國政府搭建一臺量子計算機的（量子計算初創企業） 則是利用微波來控制流經超導電路的電子對。
Microsoft, although very much not a startup,is working on a "topological" quantum computer that relies on the interactions of super-coldelectrons. One particularly well-financed new firm is Psi Quantum,which does its computing with photons that run along waveguides etched onto ordinary siliconchips.
微軟，儘管算不上一家初創公司， 也在研究一種依賴於超冷電子之間的相互作用的「拓撲」量子計算機。另外一家資金格外充裕的量子計算初創企業是PsiQuantum， 該公司研究的則是利用依靠蝕刻在普通矽片上的波導的光子進行量子計算。
It hopes to leapfrog the NISQ era entirely and produce a fully fledged quantum computer within about five years—though that is far sooner than most experts think feasible. PsiQuantum was founded in 2015 by researchers from Imperial College and the University ofBristol, both in Britain.
希望能藉此完全跳過NISQ時代，將搭建一臺完全成熟的量子計算機的時間控制在五年之內—— 儘管大部分專家都認為實際所需的時間會遠長於五年。PsiQuantum創立於2015年，創始人均為來自英國帝國理工學院和布里斯托大學的研究人員。
It has raised $215m from backers including Black-Rock, a giant investment firm,and the Founders Fund, an American vc company that was an early investor in SpaceX and Facebook.
目前，該公司已經從巨型投資公司黑石， 美國風投公司，SpaceX和Facebook的原始投資方「創始人基金」等支持者處籌集到了2.15億美元。
Microsoft (whose own topological machines are still at an early stage of development) offers access via Azure, its cloud-computing service,to machines from IonQ, Honeywell and a company called Quantum Circuits.Amazon hosts machines from Rigetti, IonQ and D-Wave,a Canadian company that builds specialised, fixed-purpose computers called quantum annealers.
微軟（該公司自己的拓撲量子計算機仍處於開發的早期階段）通過其雲計算服務平臺Azure提供了 訪問IonQ、霍尼韋爾以及一家名為「量子電路」的量子計算公司機器的接口。亞馬遜則群集了來自Rigetti、IonQ和D-Wave的機器， D-Wave是一家製造固定用途的專用計算機，也即所謂的「量子退火爐」的加拿大公司。
Rather than have hardware-makers come up with useful algorithms,the hope is that existing businesses, by being given access to the machines in this way, will invent such algorithms for themselves. With that in mind, says Krysta Svore, who leads Microsoft\\\\'s quantum-computing research,one task is to make those machines as easy as possible to use.
相比讓硬體製造商提供有用的算法， 微軟和亞馬遜選擇了寄希望於現有企業，通過以這種方式為他們提供訪問量子計算機的權限，現有企業能夠自主開發這類算法。如此一來，微軟量子計算研究負責人克裡斯塔·斯沃爾表示， 現有企業面臨的任務之一便是儘可能提高這些量子計算機的易用性。
The firm has developed tools intended to help customers wrap their brains around the counter-intuitive properties of quantum computers. It has also developed software intended to smooth over differences between machines fromdifferent makers,so that programmers do not have to worry about whether they are marshalling ions orelectrons.
該公司已經開發出了一些工具，幫助客戶理解量子計算機的反直覺特性。微軟還開發了旨在消除不同製造商不同機器差異的軟體， 如此一來，程式設計師便不必再擔心他們在編組的究竟是離子還是電子。
She compares this to the early days of classical computing,when the development of compilers and early programming languages freed human beings from the need to think in the ones and zeros of raw machine code.
她將這一工作與經典計算的早期開發做了類比， 正是有了那些開發工作，編譯器和早期程式語言的發展 才將人類從1和0這樣的原始機器代碼中解放了出來。
The big question is what all this is leading up to.Despite the excitement, the industry's commercial pioneers have their work cut out for them.There is plenty of promise, but, as yet, no certainty. Finding algorithms that are both commercially useful and simple enough to work within a NISQ machine's limitations is not easy.
最關鍵的問題是：這一切努力最終的歸宿。 儘管前景令人期待，該行業的商業先驅們依然還有很多工作要做。 未來充滿了希望，但就目前來看，沒有一種希望是板上釘釘的。要探索出既有商業用途，又能在NISQ機器的各種局限性下實現簡單操作的算法並不容易。
A report published last year by America's National Academy of Sciences reminded readers that no commercial applications are currently known to exist.The first step, then, is to go looking.
美國國家科學院去年發表的一份報告提醒讀者，這類算法目前尚不具備商業應用能力。 那麼，如今的第一步就是去看看。
The industry has been cheered by Goog's demonstration last year of "quantumsupremacy",in which it used a NISQ machine to perform, with minutes of computing time,a calculation that would have taken thousands of years on classical hardware.Google's calculation was highly contrived and of little use in the real world.But it proved a point.
去年，該行業迎來了一大振奮人心的消息：谷歌展示了「量子（計算）的優越性」， 該企業真的利用一臺NISQ機器，只用了幾分鐘的計算時間， 完成了一項傳統硬體需要數千年才能完成的計算任務。儘管谷歌的計算任務人為痕跡較重，在現實生活中並沒有多大用處， 但至少說明了問題。
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重點單詞：
nascent [ˈnæsnt] adj.發生中的;初期的;新生的
conceivable [kənˈsiːvəbl] adj.可想像的; 可信的
juggle [ˈdʒʌgl] vi.變戲法;欺騙;快速地操縱vt.欺騙;耍把戲;拿不穩;失去平衡
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