Though largely relegated to retrocomputing lovers and embedded methods or microcontrollers now, there was a time when there have been no different computer systems obtainable aside from these with 8-bit processors. The late 70s and early 80s would have seen computer systems with processors just like the Motorola 6800 or Intel 8080 because the top-of-the-line gear and, whereas underpowered by trendy requirements, these machines can do fairly a little bit of helpful work even at the moment. Mathematician [Jean Michel Sellier] needed to show this so he set up a Commodore 64 to study some concepts like simulating a quantum computer.
The pc applications he’s written to do that work are in BASIC, a typical high-level language of the period designed for ease of use. To simulate the quantum laptop he units up a matrix-vector multiplication however simplifies it utilizing conditional logic. Every little thing is proven utilizing the LIST command so these with entry to older {hardware} like this may observe alongside. From there this quantum laptop even goes so far as demonstrating a quantum full adder.
There are a selection of different movies on different matters obtainable as nicely. For instance, there’s an AmigaBasic program that simulates quantum wave packets and a QBasic program that helps visualize the statistical likelihood of finding an electron at varied places round a hydrogen nucleus. Whereas not prone to displace any supercomputing platforms anytime quickly, it’s a great take a look at the way you don’t want a whole lot of computing energy in all conditions. And, should you want a refresher on a few of these ideas, there’s an overview on how modern quantum computers work here.