EETimes heeft een artikeltje neer geknalt over de huidige vorderingen op het gebied van quantum computing (nogal mistige en heftige materie - c't heeft er regelmatig info over). Voor ons simpele zieltjes moet het allemaal gaan betekenen dat computers véél sneller gaan worden:
The quantum computer was an interesting theoretical experiment that helped both physicists and information theorists adopt a new view of their subjects. One problem that remained was how to design useful algorithms using quantum states.A turning point came when Peter Shor, a scientist at Bell Laboratories, published a quantum algorithm showing that a fairly modest quantum computer could factor very large numbers in seconds. Since computer security systems depend on the difficulty of factoring large numbers, this result implied that a small quantum computer could potentially crack any security system. "It takes one trillion years to factorize a 200-digit number with present supercomputers, but it would take only one hour or less with a quantum computer," said Sone. The surprising result galvanized experimental scientists into the search for practical quantum-computing devices.
Voordat ze zover zijn moeten er nog veel obstakels overwonnen worden. Meer daarover lees je in het artikel van EETimes.