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TheCow
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Quantum Computing
#7888512 - 01/16/08 02:54 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Does anyone here who might be in the know, even if its mildly, think that Quantum Computers will make it out to the marketplace in under 10-15 years? Personally I doubt it for various reasons we can go into. But I was just curious what others thought.
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im_on_a_boat
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Registered: 04/06/06
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Re: Quantum Computing [Re: TheCow]
#7888545 - 01/16/08 03:02 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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my girl needed a ride, what's the name of that one beck song?
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TheCow
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you drove her to that, loser
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im_on_a_boat
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Re: Quantum Computing [Re: TheCow]
#7888575 - 01/16/08 03:09 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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yes i drove her to it.. she need a ride.. duh..
and no that's not the name i think it's two turntables and a microphone..
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TheCow
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nice ninja edit
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im_on_a_boat
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Re: Quantum Computing [Re: TheCow]
#7888594 - 01/16/08 03:12 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Diploid
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Re: Quantum Computing [Re: TheCow]
#7888905 - 01/16/08 04:16 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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IBM has a working 7 qubit quantum computer. They've used it to implement Shor's Algorithm to factor 14 into 2 and 7. It's a trivial problem, but demonstrates that the principles are sound.
The machine is huge and requires cryogenic systems to keep decoherence times manageable. The big hurdle is miniaturization.
The number of qubits required to factor integers in one pass using Shor is ~n^5 where n = the number of bits in the candidate integer. That's about one quadrillion qubits to factor a 1000 bit integer. At current scales, a machine capable of doing that would be bigger than the Earth.
When/if the miniaturization and scaling problems are solved, all current asymmetric cryptosystem will be invalidated as they are all based on the (current) intractability of factoring large numbers.
With a working large quantum computer, breaking the best encryption currently used by banks online will be trivial. A factorization that currently takes trillions of years on a conventional computer can be done in seconds on a quantum computer.
My guess is we're still 20+ years away from a practical machine and a lot longer for a home version.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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TheCow
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Re: Quantum Computing [Re: Diploid]
#7889043 - 01/16/08 04:44 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yea I agree. We have a huge problem of keeping the qubits in a coherent state, and are far away from any sort of reasonable minimum of qubits that should be used. Also there are so many different approaches to it at the moment, very hard to predict which one makes the most sense. A scalable VLSI chip using trapped ions is being developed that sounds pretty decent at the moment. There are some schemes where a laser isn't needed to set up the system. They use voltages to set up the rotational states of the dipoles and tune them in and out of resonance. The VLSI one has me the most interested though, using silicon chips to control trapped ions would be quite a thing. But there are many considerations such as keeping them trapped, moving them around, keeping them in coherence while scaling it up. Then theres the issue of memory, and whatnot.
See I have the choice of basically doing research with two professors. One is doing quantum computing, the other is doing organic electrical engineering stuff. "organic light-emitting devices for displays and lighting; flexible organic photovoltaic cells for power generation; low-cost organic electronics for RFID; real-time holography and signal processing; ultra-fast photonics; and structure-property relationships in photonic and electronic materials." So eh, I mean really I dont want to do either but what I really want to do is hardly offered at any school so Id have to wait till a PhD before professors would let me do my own stuff. So either way what I do is irrelevent, although Id like the possibility of coming up with something cool and have it be useful in the marketplace.
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Seuss
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Re: Quantum Computing [Re: TheCow]
#7891815 - 01/17/08 05:12 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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> Does anyone here who might be in the know, even if its mildly, think that Quantum Computers will make it out to the marketplace in under 10-15 years?
Quantum computers are not going to be like regular computers, at least not in the near future. They will be specialized to solve a single problem, or a single class of problems.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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