A Working Quantum Computer in 3 Years?

prostoalex writes "Vancouver, BC-based D-Wave Systems got $17.5 mln from Draper Fisher Jurvetson to work on a preliminary version of a quantum computer, Technology Review reports. Delivery date? Within three years: 'It won't be a fully functional quantum computer of the sort long envisioned; but D-Wave is on track to produce a special-purpose, "noisy" piece of quantum hardware that could solve many of the physical-simulation problems that stump today's computers, says David Meyer, a mathematician working on quantum algorithms at the University of California, San Diego.'"

Comments

Re:Quantum is just another buzzword

[Anonymous Coward]

Your post is pure fluff. You don't know what you are talking about.

With a (good enough) quantum computer it is possible to factor large numbers (Shor's algorithm) and to break various public key cryptography. (RSA, Elliptic curve crypto). So I would say that it is clear why people want to build one.

(Though it is expected to take a while before the quantum computers are good enough. A few years ago they built one that was able to factor the number 15...)

Re:Speeds?

[MyLongNickName]

GHz has no meaning with Quantum computers. Sorry. Visualizing QC in terms on the Pentium in your computer is invalid.

QCL

[miyako]

This is somewhat offtopic, but I ran across it a few months ago and it's really interesting. QCL allows you to write and run quantum algorithms. Runs on Linux and OS X with some tweaking.
The documentation that comes with it is really interesting, and gives some good insights into how quantum computing works and how to write programs for a quantum computer.