SCIENTISTS have developed a blueprint for a real-life version of the supercomputer Deep Thought.

Deep Thought was programmed to solve the “ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything” in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

A team from the University of Sussex has developed the first practical plans for constructing a giant quantum computer.

This would be a thinking device capable of rapidly providing answers to problems which would take an ordinary computer billions of years to solve.

A proof-of-concept early prototype is planned within two years.

However, the ground-breaking modular design could theoretically pave the way to a machine as large as a football field with undreamed of levels of computing power.

While Deep Thought’s solution to the meaning of life was 42 in Douglas Adams’ hit comedy, Sussex scientists hope their creation will prove a lot more useful.

Quantum computers, which harness weird effects influencing the nature of reality at the subatomic level, have the potential to unravel the deepest cosmological mysteries, create life-saving medicines, transform weather forecasting, and take encryption to new levels.

Until now, quantum computing has largely been a theoretical concept with enormous potential but little in the way of practical development.

The new design idea is seen as a game changer because it allows connection speeds between individual quantum computing modules 100,000 times faster than any previously envisaged.

Professor Winfried Hensinger, head of the university’s ion quantum technology group, said: “For many years people said it was completely impossible to construct an actual quantum computer.

“With our work we have not only shown that it can be done, but we are also delivering a nuts and bolts construction plan to build an actual large-scale machine.

“The availability of a universal quantum computer may have a fundamental impact on society as a whole.

“Without doubt it is still challenging to build a large-scale machine.

“However, now is the time to translate academic excellence into actual application building on the UK’s strengths in this ground-breaking technology.

“I am very excited to work with industry and government to make this happen.”

The key to a quantum computer is its ability to operate on the basis of a circuit not only being on or off but occupying a state that is both on and off at the same time.