MilestoneIndustryDisputed
D-Wave demonstrates Orion, which it calls the first commercial quantum computer
Feb 13, 2007
At the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, Canadian startup D-Wave Systems showed its 16-qubit Orion machine, built around a superconducting niobium chip, solving tasks such as a Sudoku puzzle. The company called it the world's first commercial quantum computer.
Why it matters
It opened D-Wave's push to sell special-purpose quantum machines, and a long debate over whether they truly computed with quantum effects and could beat ordinary computers.
D-Wave released few technical details and no peer-reviewed evidence that Orion's results relied on quantum effects. Researchers such as Scott Aaronson and Umesh Vazirani called its claims hype and misleading, noting it showed no speedup over classical computers.
Geordie Rose · D-Wave
Related
Sources (3)
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MIT Technology Review
Q&A: D-Wave's Geordie Rose
“On February 13, D-Wave Systems, a startup based in Burnaby, British Columbia, claimed to have demonstrated "the world's first commercial quantum computer."”
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Physics World
Firm claims first "commercial" quantum computer
“A small company in Canada claims to have built the world's first "commercially viable" quantum computer. D-Wave Systems of Vancouver says that its Orion computer, which is built from superconducting materials, can perform a simple algorithm to search databases.”
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Shtetl-Optimized (Scott Aaronson)
The Orion Quantum Computer Anti-Hype FAQ
“If I were them, I'd focus more on the evidence for their core technological claims, given that those claims are very much what's at issue.”
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