Quantum computer for sale?

A Canadian company, D-Wave, claims it will demonstrate the world's first commercial quantum computer next week, at an event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Quantum computing is considered a "holy grail" of technology, as it allows previously difficult or impossible calculations -- notably, codebreaking -- to be peformed in moments. The promised D-Wave machine will not be powerful enough for cryptography, but should have 16 qubits, which is considerably faster than a machine with 16 standard bits. Test applications will include assigning seats under constraints, and matching molecules by pattern. D-Wave hopes to have a 1,000 qubit computer by the end of 2008. [Via The Register]

By Electronista Staff