I once saw a cut out of a D-wave computer (not a "real" quantum computer but also cryogenic). The whole device is roughly the size of a old school mainframe - a few wardrobes. But it's mostly layers of insulation and cooling. The business bit inside fits in your hand. Or so I remember at least.
Actual cooling (stuff that pumps liquid nitrogen and helium) was external to all this.
I'm pretty skeptical about the whole field myself, but miniaturization would presumably come via some new (disruptive) hardware technology. IC's weren't made by miniaturizing vacuum tubes.
Of course (back to skepticism) it's not like no one thought to try using quantum mechanics and history is starting over at the 60's. Modern QC research comes after decades of ideas failing, throughout more recent times where we have been much more technologically knowledgeable versus the early days of computing.
I'm not sure, I wonder if there are some back of the envelope estimates that could be done to see how small you could theoretically shrink that portion. At least when you make it small the materials cost is minimized!! Could make it out of exotic materials and it might still be cost effective. I wouldn't worry too much about safety once its small, there is minimal amount of harm caused by ultra cold or ultra high vacuum.
> I wouldn't worry too much about safety once its small, there is minimal amount of harm caused by ultra cold or ultra high vacuum
In a previous life I worked with NMR machines, the ones with superconducting magnets cooled by liquid helium which is itself cooled by liquid nitrogen.
I would dispute "minimal amount of harm", part of the our training involved what to do if the magnet quenches, I recall "run for the exit before you suffocate" was basically the SOP...
Anyway, they were loads of fun to work with, I won't ever forget that time I nearly had my house keys snatched out of my hand by one, but back then (25 years ago) they occupied entire rooms. AFAIK they still do.
OT but I had an MRI a couple of weeks ago, and forgot to take off my gold wedding band. I could distinctly feel the magnetic field pulsing in my ring as the scan started. After a brief moment of sheer panic I realised it wasn't a problem ... and as I lay there I was idly wondering about just how much gold was in my ring :)
> I would dispute "minimal amount of harm", part of the our training involved what to do if the magnet quenches, I recall "run for the exit before you suffocate" was basically the SOP...
Yes, at current scale it would be very hazardous, but at miniature scale a gram of liquid helium could do how much damage considering it would have to make its way through the internals of a machine to contact skin?
