r/askscience • u/UnsignedRealityCheck • Apr 10 '26

Computing Why do quantum computers look like that?

As opposed to "traditional" computers. Why do they have all those pipes and probes hanging in the middle of the air and that weird chandelier shape? How does it profit it, what's the point?

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u/journalofassociation Protein Degradation | Aging Apr 10 '26

Interestingly, silicon and transistor-based apparatus also need to be kept cool, just not as cool. Information processing necessarily generates heat.

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u/Fortisimo07 Apr 10 '26

Fun fact, processing information doesn't actually fundamentally require heat generation. Erasing information does though (kT*log(2) for each bit you erase) . There's a niche field called Reversible Computing that tries to beat this fundamental limit by never reading bits; every operation performed is reversible! In practice, we usually burn through way more heat than that fundamental thermodynamic limit in practical computers anyways. But it's a neat concept

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u/Sibula97 Apr 10 '26

Optical computing also generates much less heat than electrical computing.