旧金山10月28日电：德国初创公司NVision周三在科学期刊《自然》上发表论文，展示了一种制造量子计算芯片的新方法，该方法将借鉴目前广泛应用于智能手机显示屏的制造技术。
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 28 : German startup NVision on Wednesday published a paper in the scientific journal Nature showing a new way to make quantum computing chips that would borrow from the widespread manufacturing techniques currently used in smartphone displays.
微软和IBM等初创公司和科技巨头都在竞相建造量子计算机，这种计算机有望解决传统机器需要数千年才能解决的问题。但NVision——已从雅培等公司筹集了超过1.55亿美元的资金——周三发表的这项发现却是在一个完全不同的领域完成的：改进医疗设备。
Startups and tech giants such as Microsoft and IBM alike are racing to build quantum computers that hold the promise of solving problems that would take conventional machines thousands of years. But NVision, which has raised more than $155 million in funding from firms such as Abbott Laboratories, made the discovery published on Wednesday while working in an entirely different field: improving medical devices.
该公司开发了一种机器，可以轰击特殊的糖分子，直到其电子自旋对齐。对齐的自旋使核磁共振成像仪更容易看到这些糖，难度降低了一千倍，这反过来有助于识别那些比健康细胞更快吞噬糖分的癌细胞。
The company had developed a machine that can zap special sugar molecules until the spin of their electrons aligned. The aligned spins make the sugars a thousand times easier for MRI machines to see, which in turn helps identify cancer cells that eat the sugars far faster than healthy cells.
在周三发表的研究中，NVision表明其技术也可以作用于与电子行业广泛使用的有机发光二极管（OLED）显示器中所用的有机分子相似的有机分子。NVision使用人工智能模拟了数百种候选分子，然后实际合成了大约40种，直到找到一种可以铺设在用传统技术制造的芯片上的薄层中、从而制造出量子芯片的分子。
In the research published Wednesday, NVision showed that its technology can also work on organic molecules similar to those used in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays widely used in the electronics business. NVision used AI to simulate hundreds of candidate molecules and then physically synthesized about 40 of them until it found one that could be laid down in a thin layer over a chip made with conventional technology to create a quantum chip.
NVision首席技术官伊莱·施瓦茨在接受路透社采访时表示：“我们发现了这种‘金发姑娘’分子。”
"We found this 'Goldilocks' molecule," Ilai Schwartz, NVision's chief technology officer, told Reuters in an interview.
NVision周三还表示，它正在与美国芯片制造商HyperLight合作制造其首批芯片。NVision首席执行官塞拉·布罗什表示，该公司计划建造一台完整的量子计算机，而不是只出售其专用分子。
NVision also said on Wednesday that it is partnering with US-based chipmaker HyperLight to make its first chips. NVision CEO Sella Brosh said that the company plans to build an entire quantum computer rather than sell only its specialized molecules.
布罗什在接受采访时说：“我们想完成整个流程，制造芯片、沉积分子，并在其上完成所有纠错工作。最终，我们将出售的是一台可直接装入机架的计算机。”
"We want to do the whole thing, to fabricate the chips, to deposit the molecules, to do all the error correction on top of it," Brosh said in an interview. "Eventually, what we will sell is a rack-ready computer."