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www.us-tech.com


Tech-Op-ed September, 2017 SOUNDING OFF


By Walter Salm Editor Emeritus


would surround the wagon clutching our precious pennies and nickels for a special treat — in my case a large flat black-and-white cookie (5 cents then, $4.50 now). There were electric trolleys and interurbans running down Main Street, and war-like rumblings in Europe were still distant and somebody else’s problem. Then war came, ending this idyllic post-depression-era cluelessness. I


All the News I


soon became obsessed with warplanes, how fast the P-38 could really fly, and how many enemy aircraft it could shoot down. There were those precious ra- tion points — tiny red and blue pressed fiber “coins” that were “change” from ration coupons that contained more points than were needed for a purchase. And there were the marvelous Saturday matinees at the Hippodrome theater where 12 cents would buy a ticket for a double feature of two full-length movies, the Movietone news, two shorts, a serial, and three or four cartoons. The telephones were contemporary black bakelite, but with no dial, thus


requiring the services of an operator who would come on the line saying “Number please” to connect calls. We were on a party line with the shut-in neighbor across the street who often listened in on our calls, since she had lit- tle else to do. This made it very difficult for me to call girls for a date. In college, telephones presented a different kind of challenge. As an im-


poverished physics major existing on scholarships, I learned quickly how to make free phone calls from the pay phone in our dormitory, which had been built in 1812. Surrounded by electrical engineering students, I learned to un- screw the mouthpiece cover, remove the carbon microphone cartridge, and ground either of the two exposed contacts through an axial-lead 1,000-Ohm resistor to ground. A click in the payphone would signify success, and we would then quickly replace the microphone cartridge and screw on the cover. The receiver would then produce that wonderful, elusive dial tone. My sophomore year spelled disaster for me; I was called into the dean’s


office where I was reminded that I was failing several courses, new territory for me since my freshman year had gone so well. He recommended that I drop out of college without penalty. I complied and soon found myself wearing a brown uniform, and after basic training, going to the Signal School in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, getting my first ever intense formal education in electronics. This was in 1953-54, and I was dismayed to learn that the U.S. Army was still using vacuum tubes in its communications. The transistor had been invented in 1947, but successful commercial development was still years away. We trained in the AN/GRC-26 — a “complete” communications center built into a prefab room that was mounted on the frame of a 2-1/2-ton truck. The truck towed a hefty generator on a trailer that powered the com cen-


ter and the air conditioning. It was designed for two Signal Corps soldiers, an operator and a technician. It was comfy. It was cozy. It used a WWII vintage Hallicrafters BC-610 transmitter that was a monster, weighing about 400 pounds. It had a large handle on each side so the army could classify it as “portable,” but it still required the efforts of both men in the truck just to slide it away from the wall when a vacuum tube needed to be replaced. It operated in the 2-8 MHz range, and broadcast CW (code), voice and TTY (teletype). Output was 400 watts, and it was rated for a range of 100 miles, but experi- ence revealed that it had an effective range of 400 to 500 miles daytime, and at night, using atmospheric skip, it could reach clear around the world. The other equipment on board included a teletype machine, a teletype


tape puncher and tape reader, and a pair of Collins 388 receivers mounted in a 19-inch relay rack (yes, they’re that old). Two receivers were used to trap signals that faded in and out, connected to a pair of antennas spaced far enough apart to provide uninterrupted reception. The receiver used 18 vacu- um tubes. There was a single loudspeaker mounted high on the front wall (stereo was still years away). Today we carry the whole world in a smartphone that has more comput-


ing power than the best and fastest room-filling computers of 20 years ago. To- day’s generation cannot conceive of a quieter era when the highlight of the day was a five-year-old’s interaction with a horse-drawn bakery wagon driver. My small hometown supported two daily newspapers, and they were delivered to our doorstep. While you can still get newspapers delivered, today we tend to prefer news received electronically; it’s faster, up to date, and sometimes might even be truthful. r


had the good fortune to grow up in a much simpler age in a small town in Upstate New York. When I was five, the local bakery would send a horse- drawn wagon down our street, which was a magnet for all of us kids. We


PUBLISHER’S NOTE


By Jacob Fattal Publisher


Chomping at the Bit: Quantum Computing


T


oday’s technology has advanced to the point where we routinely manip- ulate single subatomic particles, sometimes with baffling results. This is typified by the classic double-slit experiment, first documented in 1927


by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer. The experiment demonstrated that light and matter exhibit characteristics of both waves and particles. When photons or electrons are fired at a plate with two parallel slits and


their final positions are observed on a screen behind, they show an interfer- ence pattern that is expected of a wave. When sensitive detectors are fitted to the slits, an odd thing happens —the particles cease to appear like a wave and instead show discrete points on the screen behind. This has become one of the central puzzles of quantum mechanics. How can something be two things at the same time? This strange duality is now being put to use in quantum computing.


Companies such as Rigetti Computing in the U.S., and D-Wave Systems in Canada are harnessing the bizarre nature of subatomic particles to advance computing beyond the bit. Quantum computers make use of qubits, which rep- resent the typical ones and zeroes of binary systems, as well as any “quantum superposition” of those two states. This means that with only a few qubits, an exponentially larger amount of information can be stored when compared with traditional bit-based memory. John Preskill, a professor at Caltech, has coined the imposing term


“quantum supremacy” to describe the point at which quantum computing will overtake conventional computers. Google has even announced that it will at- tempt to reach this milestone by the end of 2017. IBM has also created its Quantum Experience, which can be accessed through the IBM Cloud. Origi- nally launched as a prototypical, cloud-based, quantum computing system with five qubits, this year, it was expanded to 16. Users can run algorithms and share the results of their experiments in an online forum. While still in their infancy, quantum computers nevertheless promise to


overturn classic binary systems. The potential for complex, simultaneous cal- culations to be carried out may provide solutions to many of our present chal- lenges. For one, developing new medications from a vast array of simulated chemical combinations, without having to follow every possible avenue through to development, may offer cures to some of our worst diseases. In the case of pure data processing, quantum computing might help make general artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computing could not be arriving at a better time. We have


nearly reached the physical limits of current semiconductor technology. The future is always incredibly difficult to predict. But, down the line, we may look back and compare the difference be- tween quantum and conventional com- puting to that between a smartphone and an abacus. r


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