Microsoft Extreme Computing Group

Dan Reed has a brief note up about a new group at Microsoft the extreme computing group (XCG) which includes among its subject areas quantum computing:

XCG was formed in June 2009 with the goal of developing radical new approaches to ultrascale and high-performance computing hardware and software. The group's research activities include work in computer security, cryptography, operating system design, parallel programming models, cloud software, data center architectures, specialty hardware accelerators and quantum computing.

Also in the news here. Microsoft, of course, has long had a toe in quantum computing, with Microsoft station Q in Santa Barbara investigating topological quantum computing and related models. Hopefully this bodes well for continued Microsoft investing in that most extreme of computational models (okay computing with closed timelike curves is probably even more extreme!), quantum computing.

Categories

More like this

This is one of four related posts: Should You Install Ubuntu Linux? Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS How to use Ubuntu Unity Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Some Linux/Ubuntu related books: Ubuntu Unleashed 2016 Edition: Covering 15.10 and 16.04 (11th Edition) Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop:…
"The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve." - E. P. Wigner Our universe, or at least our understanding of the universe, appears to allow us to see its naked underbelly…
As noted by Lance, the new journal ACM Transactions on Computation Theory is now accepting papers. Note for quantum computing theorists: ACM Transactions on Computation Theory will cover theoretical computer science complementing the scope of the ACM Transactions on Algorithms and the ACM…
Today Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke at the University of Washington in the Microsoft Atrium of the Computer Science & Engineering department's Paul Allen Center. As you can tell from that first sentence UW and Microsoft have long had very tight connections. Indeed, perhaps the smartest…

Ohhh, the subtext... that you follow up the post about dark projects, black holes if you will, with a post referring to closed-timelike curves. You and your durnfangled subliminal mind control.

If the gov is working on building a closed timelike computer, I want in :)

I hope Microsoft is working on closed timelike curves. Then they can patch their software before it goes to market.

(He shoots, he scores...)

By Pieter Kok (not verified) on 15 Jun 2009 #permalink

Is that like computing to do with skateboarding, snowboarding, and jumping out of aeroplanes or something?

Will their motto be: "If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay the ultimate price. It's not tragic to die doing what you love."?

(Eternal respect to those who know what movie that quote comes from within 30 seconds without googling it - and who have the guts to admit to that fact :-) )

Just imagine how worthless a quantum computer made/supported by *Microsoft* would be. What's the quantum replacement for the blue screen of death? or the constant updates? Someone more clever than I needs to come up with a good answer...Maybe something about a blue screen of Schrodinger's cat?

By Michael J. Biercuk (not verified) on 18 Jun 2009 #permalink

What's the quantum replacement for the blue screen of death?

Easy --- it's any quantum computation that can be simulated with PSPACE/PTIME classical resources.