First demonstration of Shor's historic factoring algorithm

SAN JOSE, Calif., December 19, 2001 - Scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center have performed the world's most complicated quantum-computer calculation to date. They caused a billion-billion custom-designed molecules in a test tube to become a seven-qubit quantum computer that solved a simple version of the mathematical problem at the heart of many of today's data-security cryptographic systems.

"This result reinforces the growing realization that quantum computers may someday be able to solve problems that are so complex that even the most powerful supercomputers working for millions of years can't calculate the answers," said Nabil Amer, manager and strategist of IBM Research's physics of information group.


More about this at:

http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20011219_quantum.shtml

The thing about quantum computers is that the more you think about it the more you start to wonder if our universe is a huge version of one... and yes i have been reading THGTTG :m:


I wonder if M$ will make an operating system for quantum computers something like Windows Q

Interesting article. New wonders await us every day, don´t they.

And of course M$ will produce an operating system for quantum computers.
Windows²° or something like that. It will produce errors even faster than on today´s high-end computers. :D

I don't like the idea of a windows OS on a Quantum computer, the amount of errors that occur on the current standard desktops would suffice. Especially since the last thing you want is a mirror mirror effect occuring on your desktop where the words you think of writing and are about to write magically appear before your bunny rabbit eyes.

Quantum Computers basically work on the idea of inherent parallelism.That is,they work on something called Qubits.Difficult to comprehend first the idea is vague to regular user.Q-Computers work on Altering Qubits- bits representing both 0 or 1 or a combination of bits or a transition between noth '0' and '1'


bye!

Just a book plug :cool:

Nanocosm by William Isley Atkinson has a lot of cool ideas about quantum computation (plus a bunch of other neat stuff like material science and a whole chapter about Stephen Wolfram's cellular automata).

If you are even registered for sciforums you need to read this book!

from today's slashdot (http://slashdot.org)
Posted by timothy on Wednesday April 21, @03:40PM
from the sneaky-atoms dept.
An anonymous reader writes with today's announcement that "the Austrian project for Quantum Cryptography made the world's first Bank Transfer via Quantum Cryptography Based on Entangled Photons; see also Einstein-Podolski-Rosen Paradoxon." (For more background, see the recent Slashdot post "Quantum Cryptography Leaving the Lab.")
http://science.slashdot.org/