With only a few intense lasers, electrodes and some ultracold ions, researchers at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, have been able to build the first programmable quantum Computer.
What makes this experiment different is that this new system is able to perform more than 150 random processing routines.
For Quantum computers to become more useful, these machines should be able to be progammed just like a normal computer can be programmed. This will of course mean that the system will be able to run many different programs. Up until now, earlier versions of quantum computers have been very restricted with regards to the amount of specific tasks they could perform.
The new study is "a powerful demonstration of the technological advances towards producing a real-world quantum computer," says quantum physicist Winfried Hensinger of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. The researchers, led by David Hanneke of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colo. built the computer based on two cooled beryllium ions with a temperature of just above zero.
The ions formed the quantum bits, or qubits, analogous to the bits in normal computers represented by 0s and 1s, and were trapped by a magnetic field on a gold-plated aluminum chip. To perform the processing operations, short laser bursts were used to manipulate the beryllium ions. Magnesium ions kept the beryllium ions stationary, and from getting hot. It is believed that this system may be applied to larger-scale systems.
The system built was mostly experimental, but what is important is the fact that the principal may be applied on a larger scale, and therefore become practical.

SST Unveils World's First Low-Voltage, High-Speed Quad I/O Serial Flash Memory:

SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.), one of the leaders in the flash memory technology announced worlds first 1.8V, high-speed
quad-bit serial flash memory.
The memory includes an 80 MHz operating frequency, and 26 WF Series Serial Quad I/O (SQI) family of 4-bit multiplexed I/O serial interface
devices, to activate XIP (execute in place capability).
Once XIP is enabled, programs do not require code shadowing on SRAM. They can be executed directly from the flash memory. Besides, the memory functions efficiently even at a low power consumption.
"The mobile phone industry, in particular, has been yearning for a serial memory solution with high performance and extremely low power consumption and we are proud to be the first in the industry to achieve this highly challenging accomplishment," said Douglas Lee, vice president, Memory Products, SST.
"In addition to performance and power consumption advantages, our new 26WF Series offers designers of ultra low-cost mobile handsets with a low pin count, quad I/O protocol serial flash memory that is straightforward and easy to integrate, enabling continued system cost reduction. Today's announcement solidifies our leadership in low-voltage, high-speed serial flash memory and underscores our commitment to providing customers with the solutions they need to achieve their design goals."
The 26 WF Series SQI devices are based on a number of advanced features. Small block sectors on the chip may be erased within 25 ms whereas it takes only 50 ms to erase the entire chip. The write suspend and resume operations make memory manipulation remarkably easy and effective. 26WF Series devices provide software write protection to ensure code security. Besides, the secure ID area can be programmed only once.