qubit

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Blend of quantum +‎ bit, a play on cubit (historical unit of length). Coined by American physicist Benjamin Schumacher in 1995.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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qubit (plural qubits)

  1. (quantum computing) A quantum bit; the basic unit of quantum information described by a superposition of two states; a quantum bit in a quantum computer capable of being in a state of superposition.
    Synonyms: qbit, quantum bit
    Coordinate term: bit
    • 2006 March 25, NewScientist, page 42/2:
      Quantum computing, on the other hand, is based on quantum bits, or qubits.
    • 2012 February 25, ‘An uncertain future’, The Economist:
      Each extra qubit in a quantum machine doubles the number of simultaneous operations it can perform.
    • 2019 October 21, Dennis Overbye, “Quantum Computing Is Coming, Bit by Qubit”, in New York Times[1]:
      Google’s Sycamore computer has all of 53 qubits to its name, as does a new IBM computer, installed online at the company’s Quantum Computation Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. System One, IBM’s black cube from tomorrow, only has 20 qubits.
    • 2019 October 23, Cade Metz, “Google Claims a Quantum Breakthrough That Could Change Computing”, in New York Times[2]:
      By harnessing that odd behavior, scientists can instead build a quantum bit, or qubit, which stores a combination of 1 and 0. Two qubits can hold four values at once. And as the number of qubits grows, a quantum computer becomes exponentially more powerful.

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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Portuguese

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Noun

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qubit m (plural qubits)

  1. (computing) qubit (quantum bit)

Spanish

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Noun

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qubit m (plural qubits)

  1. (computing) qubit (quantum bit)