If I could afford such a computer, I'd also be in line to buy one too. It makes sense that they would use it first to attack encryption. The government is always interested in that, and they have invested millions into this research. They always want to get their hands on the new stuff first, and even force companies to delay the release of certain technology until they get it first.

I said they'd have a working computer by 3 years. They did. It might not be very practical or useful at the moment, but they have a working version.

No an engineer would only be interested in facts, not opinions - Period.

Where does classicman address the topic of quantum computers or D-wave? Where does he offer using information or insight? Oh. classicman instead attacks the messenger. Again, classicman has nothing useful to offer - just posts belittling remarks.

No attack - just my opinion. I believe that engineers are interested primarily in facts. What's wrong with that?

I'll be the first to admit that aside from reading this thread and a couple of the associated links, I do not know anything about quantum computers.

Moving back to the subject, quantum computing is not a solution to all computing problems. QC is only practical to a particular type of computing problem where numerous possibilities (permutations) exist simultaneously during the computing process. Breaking encryption is a possible example of where QC can be so productive. QC works by storing and manipulating a large amount of data with few particles. But when the computation is done, only one answer can be read. For example, any problem with two or more valid answers cannot be solved efficiently. Problems that don't work well in quantum computing include trying to optimize the packing of odd sized boxes in a trunk or finding a solution to visting every island connected by bridges only once. These problems are called "nondeterministic polynomial time".

Quantum computers are not a magic solution to all computing as so many assume. QC is a solution to limited problems that involve permutations.

So why are you posting attacks? Why are you posting about something you know nothing about? Oh. You understand attacking another poster. That justifies your post on a subject you know nothing about - that you cannot contribute positively to? How is disparaging another poster productive or useful? Why do you routinely post an atack on Radar? Where do you post any useful information?

I guess I don't. Thanks for pointing that out. Buh bye.

And why do you hate America?

Is that directed at me SG?

Dude, she's gotten you twice now with that one. You need to watch more Colbert Report.

well she could be serious - you never know with those Brits ;)
They have that odd sense of humor and watch Dr. Who and.....

Moore's Law will hold up even if the new Quantum computers take a long time. The new Zii chips from Creative Labs are amazing.


http://ziilabs.com

Encryption
 

Radar,

The purpose of quantum computing in random number generation is to make cracking encryption by hostile agencies a lot harder by increasing the entropy of the system :). Current hardware-based random number generators just don't scale up to the level you need for 10-40Gbps pipes, and beyond. There are certain customers in corporate America and Europe (think banks, multi-national telecoms, and multi-national pharma) that would pay a lot of money to encrypt their dark fiber and SAN traffic efficiently. Defense is right up there too, but a given.

Of course, the opposite is true. With the right code, any "product of primes" encryption such as RSA would be toast with quantum computing.

GPS would be the best application, as you'd have the ability to use the current satellite system to be significantly more accurate (think fractions of a millimeter).

I still think the Zii is more marketing than product :).

When I was growing up, transistors were constantly promoted as the future. I believe the various applications quantum physics (some identifed by mbpark) demonstrate the future for kids growing up today. IOW today's quantum based products are probably similar to where the transistor was in the mid 1950s.

I'm with you on all of that. I do think Zii seems to have great possibilities though and is more than marketing. Come on man, you've got to admit real time rendering with ray tracing on a computer setup with about the same footprint as a standard tower is pretty impressive.