TYPE-II QUANTUM COMPUTERS

Abstract

This paper discusses a computing architecture that uses both classical parallelism and quantum parallelism. We consider a large parallel array of small quantum computers, connected together by classical communication channels. This kind of computer is called a type-II quantum computer, to differentiate it from a globally phase-coherent quantum computer, which is the first type of quantum computer that has received nearly exclusive attention in the literature. Although a hybrid, a type-II quantum computer retains the crucial advantage allowed by quantum mechanical superposition that its computational power grows exponentially in the number of phase-coherent qubits per node, only short-range and short time phase-coherence is needed, which significantly reduces the level of engineering facility required to achieve its construction. Therefore, the primary factor limiting its computational power is an economic one and not a technological one, since the volume of its computational medium can in principle scale indefinitely.