“To solve this problem required us to build p-computers at sizes we had never gone to before,” Çamsarı said, “We used millions of p-bits and then did simulations on CPUs to see how they will behave at much larger scales, using existing chips that we customize.” The idea to use so many p-bits came accidentally. Two Ph.D. students from the University of Messina, in Italy — Andrea Grimaldi who was visiting the Çamsari lab, and Eleonora Raimondo, who was in Messina — began to see non-intuitive favor...