经济学人下载:量子计算机蕴藏的商机(4)

Microsoft (whose own topological machines are still at an early stage of development) offers access via Azure, its cloud-computing service, 

微软（该公司自己的拓扑量子计算机仍处于开发的早期阶段）通过其云计算服务平台Azure提供了

to machines from IonQ, Honeywell and a company called Quantum Circuits. 

访问IonQ、霍尼韦尔以及一家名为“量子电路”的量子计算公司机器的接口。

Amazon hosts machines from Rigetti, IonQ and D-Wave, 

亚马逊则群集了来自Rigetti、IonQ和D-Wave的机器，

a Canadian company that builds specialised, fixed-purpose computers called quantum annealers. 

D-Wave是一家制造固定用途的专用计算机，也即所谓的“量子退火炉”的加拿大公司。

Rather than have hardware-makers come up with useful algorithms, 

相比让硬件制造商提供有用的算法，

the hope is that existing businesses, by being given access to the machines in this way, will invent such algorithms for themselves. 

微软和亚马逊选择了寄希望于现有企业，通过以这种方式为他们提供访问量子计算机的权限，现有企业能够自主开发这类算法。

With that in mind, says Krysta Svore, who leads Microsoft's quantum-computing research, 

如此一来，微软量子计算研究负责人克里斯塔·斯沃尔表示，

one task is to make those machines as easy as possible to use. 

现有企业面临的任务之一便是尽可能提高这些量子计算机的易用性。

The firm has developed tools intended to help customers wrap their brains around the counter-intuitive properties of quantum computers. 

该公司已经开发出了一些工具，帮助客户理解量子计算机的反直觉特性。

It has also developed software intended to smooth over differences between machines from different makers, 

微软还开发了旨在消除不同制造商不同机器差异的软件，

so that programmers do not have to worry about whether they are marshalling ions or electrons. 

如此一来，程序员便不必再担心他们在编组的究竟是离子还是电子。

She compares this to the early days of classical computing, 

她将这一工作与经典计算的早期开发做了类比，

when the development of compilers and early programming languages 

正是有了那些开发工作，编译器和早期编程语言的发展

freed human beings from the need to think in the ones and zeros of raw machine code. 

才将人类从1和0这样的原始机器代码中解放了出来。

The big question is what all this is leading up to. 

最关键的问题是：这一切努力最终的归宿。

Despite the excitement, the industry's commercial pioneers have their work cut out for them 

尽管前景令人期待，该行业的商业先驱们依然还有很多工作要做。

There is plenty of promise, but, as yet, no certainty. 

未来充满了希望，但就目前来看，没有一种希望是板上钉钉的。

Finding algorithms that are both commercially useful and simple enough to work within a NISQ machine's limitations is not easy. 

要探索出既有商业用途，又能在NISQ机器的各种局限性下实现简单操作的算法并不容易。

A report published last year by America's National Academy of Sciences reminded readers that no commercial applications are currently known to exist. 

美国国家科学院去年发表的一份报告提醒读者，这类算法目前尚不具备商业应用能力。

The first step, then, is to go looking. 

那么，如今的第一步就是去看看。

The industry has been cheered by Google's demonstration last year of "quantum supremacy", 

去年，该行业迎来了一大振奋人心的消息：谷歌展示了“量子（计算）的优越性”，

in which it used a NISQ machine to perform, with minutes of computing time, 

该企业真的利用一台NISQ机器，只用了几分钟的计算时间，

a calculation that would have taken thousands of years on classical hardware. 

完成了一项传统硬件需要数千年才能完成的计算任务。

Google's calculation was highly contrived and of little use in the real world. 

尽管谷歌的计算任务人为痕迹较重，在现实生活中并没有多大用处，

But it proved a point. 

但至少说明了问题。