Quantum Computing: What Businesses Should Know and How to Prepare
Quantum computing is advancing, and it threatens today's public-key encryption. We separate hype from reality and lay out a practical post-quantum cryptography readiness plan.
Hardware & Industry 4.0
What is Qubit?
Quick answer
The basic unit of information in a quantum computer, which can represent 0, 1, or a superposition of both at once.
Qubit, explained
A classical bit is like a light switch, either on or off. A qubit is more like a spinning coin that, until measured, holds a combination of possibilities described by probabilities. When measured, it settles into either 0 or 1. Multiple qubits can also be entangled, so the state of one is linked to the others in ways classical bits cannot be.
Qubits can be built in several ways, including superconducting circuits cooled near absolute zero, trapped ions held by electromagnetic fields, photons, and neutral atoms. All face the problem of decoherence, where interaction with the environment destroys the quantum state. Researchers combine many physical qubits through error correction to create more reliable logical qubits.
Related terms
Encryption
The process of converting readable data into scrambled ciphertext that only someone with the correct key can decode.
Quantum ComputingA type of computing that uses quantum-mechanical effects such as superposition and entanglement to process information in new ways.
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