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Ultrafast quantum computer uses optically controlled electrons (physorg.com)
9 points by mk on Aug 15, 2007 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment


This is a strange article, in my opinion.

The point of quantum computing is to enable completely new types of algorithms whose running time scales much faster - ideally, exponentially faster - than an ordinary computer. For certain very limited classes of tasks, this can be achieved.

Given this, the "running speed" of the computer, which is what this article focuses on, isn't all that important. A working 1 kiloherz quantum computer will greatly outperform a 1 teraherz conventional computer for those problems quantum computers are known to be good at, such as factoring composite integers.




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