QUANTUM PROCESSOR?

The 'first product of the quantum processing algorithm' was, in fact, not that

- Katie Wickens

PC Gamer's always looking to keep ahead of the latest hardware developments, and in our age of technological breakthroughs few things are more exciting than the field of quantum computing. Quantum computers like the IBM Q System One exist, but the long-awaited breakthrough which may never come is scalability. So it was serious news when the Imam Khomeini University of Marine Sciences and Technologies-in Iran-unveiled the so-called "first product of the quantum processing algorithm" -its own quantum processor.

In the presence of Iran’s Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, coordinating deputy of the Islamic Republic’s Army, the university held a press conference in June featuring this impressive looking ‘quantum processor’. The board in question is only a few inches each side, with a radial circuitry pattern, though one that looked a little too rudimentary to feature any kind of quantum processing power on its own.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before the claim came crumbling down in pretty spectacular fashion. Soon after the announcement, Gabriel Noronha, a former US Department of State advisor on Iran, discovered that this 'quantum processor' is actually a widely available development board.