DailyDirt: Quantum Computers Are Both Here And Not Here...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Quantum computers are starting to become a commercial reality as multiple companies start to take advantage of the strange laws of quantum physics to solve complex mathematical problems. The hardware is difficult enough to build, but assuming the hardware actually exists, programmers now have to figure out how to write software for qubits. Here are just a few links on these new computers that aren't quite ready to replace desktop PCs. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
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Filed Under: algorithm, hardware, physics, quantum computer, qubit, silicon
Companies: aerospace concepts, d-wave, google, lockheed martin, nasa


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  1. icon
    Mason Wheeler (profile), 25 Aug 2014 @ 5:08pm

    In 2007, D-Wave had a 16-qubit system, and now it has a 512-qubit computer.

    Wow. That's essentially perfect Moore's Law growth. Another 20 years and they'll be mainstream. :P

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Pixelation, 25 Aug 2014 @ 5:14pm

    Schrodinger's computer?

    ..."Quantum Computers Are Both Here And Not Here".

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2014 @ 5:36pm

    Re: Schrodinger's computer?

    Reality bites.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2014 @ 5:43pm

    Let me check my cat

    Let me ask my cat.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2014 @ 5:45pm

    Make encryption obsolete

    It would be a significant hit to the Internet if encryption were suddenly made obsolete.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Richard (profile), 26 Aug 2014 @ 3:29am

    Re: Make encryption obsolete

    Quantum Computers wouldn't make encryption obsolete.

    All they could do is to solve a certain class of "hard" problems on which some existing public key algorithms are based.

    Encryption would then have to switch to a different class of hard problems or to Quantum Encryption (which itself is nearer to market than the kind of Quantum Computer that can break RSA.)

    Furthermore it is not clear in what sense the D wave machine is a quantum computer - since it isn't designed to run Shor's Algorithm and the things it does do can be done faster by better algorithms on a classical machine.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Richard (profile), 26 Aug 2014 @ 3:30am

    Re:

    Except that the qubits aren't very entangled - so it really doesn't count.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2014 @ 7:44am

    Re: Re: Make encryption obsolete

    "Quantum encryption" (actually quantum key distribution) is on the market already, but not really practical because it requires a direct fibre-optic link or line of sight between source and destination. Post-quantum cryptography will likely be practical first.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2014 @ 9:12am

    Okay, but does it play Crysis?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2014 @ 11:51am

    Re:

    No, but it does play Quantum Conundrum.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    John, 22 Oct 2014 @ 3:43pm

    Re:

    That's hilarious and awesome.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Ion, 15 Jun 2016 @ 6:11am

    Reality bites.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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