We are getting closer to the most spectacular early quantum algorithm - Shor's algorithm for factoring large composite numbers which can be used to break the most widely used public key cryptography systems. But before we can tackle this algorithm, there is one more thing that we need to understand - the quantum Fourier transform. … Continue reading The quantum Fourier Transform
Modern operating systems are mostly event driven - network cards receive packets, users hit keys or a mouse buttons, built-in timer create events or data arrives from a hard drive. To be able to process these events, a CPU needs a mechanism to stop whatever it is currently doing and run some code designed to … Continue reading Interrupts – the heartbeat of a Unix kernel
In the last post, we have looked at the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm that is considered to be the first example of a quantum algorithm that is structurally more efficient than any classical algorithm can probably be. However, the problem solved by the algorithm is rather special. This does, of course, raise the question whether a similar … Continue reading Grover’s algorithm – unstructured search with a quantum computer
Most careers in operating system development probably start with a seemingly simple task - produce a program that, at start time, takes full control of a computer and prepares for the execution of the actual operating system, i.e. boot the computer. It turns out, however, that - thanks to the complexity of modern x86 based … Continue reading Get your kernel going – the boot process
We have now seen how quantum gates implement unitary transformations on qubits. Intuitively, we should, as in the classical case, now be able to combine these quantum gates into quantum algorithms that perform more complex sequences of manipulations of a quantum state. In this post, we will look at a first example to get an … Continue reading Quantum algorithms – a first example
What happens if you turn on a PC? How is an operating system able to run multiple tasks in parallel? What happens if you hit a key on your keyboard? And what actually is a process? If you have ever thought for more than a second about one of these things, then read on... A … Continue reading Why building an operating system from scratch?
So far, we have looked at states of a quantum computer and expressed these states in terms of qubits. However, just having a static state is of very limited use - to perform actual computations, we of course have to change our state over time. In quantum mechanics, state changes are described by unitary transformations … Continue reading Quantum gates
