Major step in quantum computers...

[Oifish]

I saw this article from digg.com and if it's true a quantum computer won't be too far off: http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?type=article&article_id=218392702

 

[willtriv]

amazing article

being a former uw student heard tid bits of info from friends and such about quantum computing. Slowing down and manipulating light is a huge step in the right direction.

if a quantum computer existed in the next 10-15 years like that article suggests i think moore's law will be finished

 

[f95toli]

Depends on what you mean by "far off"

Don't get me wrong, it is an interesting article but it is still only a very small piece in a very large puzzle. It is not in any way a major discovery and personally I don't think these experiments will turn out to be important at all if the goal is to build a PRACTICAL quantum computer. This requires solid state qubits and AFAIK there is no way to integrate a solid state qubit with optical systems.
That said, this can still be important for fundamental studies.

 

[Bassyhead]

Still quite a ways until we have quantum computing. This article is more along the lines, when compared to the semiconductor world, the first experimentations of a primitive transistor.

 

[BlueFlamme]

Moore's law will not "be finished" when functioning quantum computers exist. We will still be using silicon based processors for day to day business. The function of quantum computers will be to replace the current supercomputers. They are geared at solving specific mathematical problems that requires software tailored to the problem.

In college I did some research on quantum computing (we produced a basic theoretical quantum ALU), and the largest thing I can see it affecting for the public is that it'll blow the hell out of cryptography.

It seemed every technical paper we read was written by a team consisting of electrical engineers, physicists, and mathematicians (not exactly easy reading, sometimes the fifth time through left you as confused as the first time).

 

[f95toli]

As far as we know quantum computers can only be used to solve a few very specific problems, they are not "general" computers in any way.
Some of these problems are pretty important but strictly speaking: Unless you are interested in code breaking there are very few real applications.

That said, quantum computers are good at simulating other quantum systems. Essentially they might turn out to be very usefull as "toy-systems" in e.g quatum chemistry. In fact you only need about 20 coupled qubits or so in order to do something meaningful (usefull code breaking=factorization requires many thousand coupled qubits) and that might be doable in say 10 years or so.
However, most people would not call a system like this a "computer".

 

[GrantMeThePower]

Did you read about this "quantam" application: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/ces/live...um-disk-from-atom-chip-corp-147086.php

 

[willtriv]

haha that seems fake enough



if its true its cool, but it'd be allover yahoo cover page and its def not

 

[willtriv]

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/2005120717475037

it seems we are still struggling to store bits, why would there be a 500gb flash disk?

 

[imported_Seer]

Originally posted by: f95toli
As far as we know quantum computers can only be used to solve a few very specific problems, they are not "general" computers in any way.
Some of these problems are pretty important but strictly speaking: Unless you are interested in code breaking there are very few real applications.

That said, quantum computers are good at simulating other quantum systems. Essentially they might turn out to be very usefull as "toy-systems" in e.g quatum chemistry. In fact you only need about 20 coupled qubits or so in order to do something meaningful (usefull code breaking=factorization requires many thousand coupled qubits) and that might be doable in say 10 years or so.
However, most people would not call a system like this a "computer".

I love how this guy thinks (or is he acting?) that this site is real ><

This site has bene around for 2-3 years, don't you think we would have heard about this? I mean, terabytes of RAM? PFFT give me a break.

 

[SophalotJack]

If you guys want your lid blown off, then listen to this.

We may have had semi-operational quantum computers as early as the mid 90's.

It is somewhat heresay since my source was my High School physics teacher. He did a lot of govt contract work as his main job.

He always hinted at how civilians never get to see the technology that is in our hands for decades to come. Unless is it produced independently. It makes sense to me. I mean do you really think the 4 decade old blackbird is still the fastest plane in the world?... is what he always told us.

I don't see IEEE publicly developing a tool (that can destroy all our digital security, overnight) faster than the NSA.

Whenever I hear the word quantum... I always think of a new age nuclear device... or that TV show.

So, maybe we do have working models of quantum computers. But I guarantee that there is no way that any modern civilization's govt will allow consumers to harness it's power until cryptology catches up. Which is probably never.

So my prediction is that quantum computing, in our ****** world, will only be regarded as a military grade weapon for decades to come.

 

[f95toli]

Originally posted by: Seer

Originally posted by: f95toli
As far as we know quantum computers can only be used to solve a few very specific problems, they are not "general" computers in any way.
Some of these problems are pretty important but strictly speaking: Unless you are interested in code breaking there are very few real applications.

That said, quantum computers are good at simulating other quantum systems. Essentially they might turn out to be very usefull as "toy-systems" in e.g quatum chemistry. In fact you only need about 20 coupled qubits or so in order to do something meaningful (usefull code breaking=factorization requires many thousand coupled qubits) and that might be doable in say 10 years or so.
However, most people would not call a system like this a "computer".

I love how this guy thinks (or is he acting?) that this site is real ><

This site has bene around for 2-3 years, don't you think we would have heard about this? I mean, terabytes of RAM? PFFT give me a break.

Take a look a the first link (not the link posted by Grantmepower, that is defintily fake). It discusses the paper published by Longdell et al in Physical Review Letters 95, 063601.
It is definitly not fake

 

[f95toli]

Originally posted by: SophalotJack
If you guys want your lid blown off, then listen to this.

We may have had semi-operational quantum computers as early as the mid 90's.

It is somewhat heresay since my source was my High School physics teacher. He did a lot of govt contract work as his main job.

He always hinted at how civilians never get to see the technology that is in our hands for decades to come. Unless is it produced independently. It makes sense to me. I mean do you really think the 4 decade old blackbird is still the fastest plane in the world?... is what he always told us.

I don't see IEEE publicly developing a tool (that can destroy all our digital security, overnight) faster than the NSA.

Whenever I hear the word quantum... I always think of a new age nuclear device... or that TV show.

So, maybe we do have working models of quantum computers. But I guarantee that there is no way that any modern civilization's govt will allow consumers to harness it's power until cryptology catches up. Which is probably never.

So my prediction is that quantum computing, in our ****** world, will only be regarded as a military grade weapon for decades to come.

This is a just an urban legend. There are no such "secret military labs" working on anything like this.
It is entirely possible (and probable) that NSA is keeping an eye on the development of quantum computers. But I can guarantee that they do not have a working, usefull,
prototype.
The point is that quantum computing is still only basic research. it is not engineering. At the moment no one has a clue about how to build a USEFULL quantum computer (the coherence time of even single qubits are still to short, and the current record for connecting several qubits together is 3, you need several tens of thousand for code breaking) and NSA is only interested in (potentially) usefull devices.

If and when we reach a point where one can think of actually building a usefull computer NSA will probably start up their own program. But at the moment they do not have the knowledge, manpower or equipment so for now they are just supporting the research.
(although is think most of the money is actually coming from the US Navy)
Only if and when the development reaches the "engineering" stage will they start working on it in secret labs. For now this research is best done out in the open.

I'll give you an example:
There has been a rumour in the community that quantum cryptograhy has been used to link the White House and Pentagon for about 7-8 years.
Now, quantum cryptograpjy has only been commercially available for about two years but it entirely possible that the rumour is true. There have been working lab setups for much longer than 8 years, they were just impractical and expensive. However, I don't see why NSA wouldn't have been able to build a working prototype since the principles were known and they have an infinite amount of money AND there were people around that knew enough about the subject to do the job. Hence, the rumour might be true.

The difference between quantum crypthography and quantum computer is that we do not even have any theories for how to build a working usefull prototype of the latter, in fact we do not even now if it is possible to connect that many qubits and still have usefull coherence times.

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: SophalotJack
If you guys want your lid blown off, then listen to this.

We may have had semi-operational quantum computers as early as the mid 90's.

It is somewhat heresay since my source was my High School physics teacher. He did a lot of govt contract work as his main job.

He always hinted at how civilians never get to see the technology that is in our hands for decades to come. Unless is it produced independently. It makes sense to me. I mean do you really think the 4 decade old blackbird is still the fastest plane in the world?... is what he always told us.

I don't see IEEE publicly developing a tool (that can destroy all our digital security, overnight) faster than the NSA.

Whenever I hear the word quantum... I always think of a new age nuclear device... or that TV show.

So, maybe we do have working models of quantum computers. But I guarantee that there is no way that any modern civilization's govt will allow consumers to harness it's power until cryptology catches up. Which is probably never.

So my prediction is that quantum computing, in our ****** world, will only be regarded as a military grade weapon for decades to come.

Since you have shown your complete ignorance of how the government works, let me make it pretty clear.

THe government 50 years ago developed a lot of the technologies itself but that is not the case today. The government can't complete with private industry on salary and other aspects so you don't have as many bright people working in the government.

Our government today uses pretty much what industry provides. The government used to design many of the computer and networking systems themselves but over the past 20 years, they realized that they did not have the infrastruture and knowledge to continue this.

Parts would break and there was nothing around to replace them with. Take a look at our shuttle program.

The government now uses almost exclusively commercial hardware and software. There is not secret lab of people developing a quantum computer for the government.

Frankly, the government doesn't need a quantum computer to break most encryptions. VERY VERY few people use strong passwords and very few people use passwords that have nothing to do with their lives.

If I had access to your entire history and life, then I could probably crack your encryption through bruteforce because I can limit the list to things related to you.

 

[bigdog1218]

I worked in a lab that used an approach simliar to this, Quantum computer, but we were way behind and switched gears to work on other projects. You can look up spintronics to get some more information if you're interested.

Edit: I didn't work in the lab in the article, just on a project similiar to it.

 

[coomar]

one of my profs doctorate is in quantum computing, i could ask her how far the field is

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: SophalotJack
I don't see IEEE publicly developing a tool (that can destroy all our digital security, overnight) faster than the NSA.

Of the best minds in the computers field, a number of them would refuse to associate with the military, a number of them would refuse to associate with long term secrecy, a number of them couldn't pass the required background checks if their life depended on it, and most of the rest of them could make far more money working elsewhere.

So given that the field consists of X, and NSA can hire some number y, which is far smaller than X, what on earth would make you think that they could even make a non-laughable attempt to keep up, let alone lead everyone else by decades ?