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Quantum Computing Breakthrough

Fenton

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The mind boggles when considering the implications of this tech.

It factors prime numbers better than anything else. It essentially would make obsolete all security codes.
 
I'm not really sure what this means. Are we talking about increasing processing power by a factor of 3? I guess what I'm asking is if this means that when I hit "popcorn" on my microwave will that now mean that popcorn just appears instead of me having to go get one of those bags and, if so, will it do away with the unpopped kernels?
 

That they can. And in fact, I do believe we have those codes that a quantum computer hasn't broken. I do not believe they were switched over, however, because the current security protocols have been active and have been attacked and have shown themselves stout and resolute against attacks. The real goal in the quantum computing research isn't so much to make a quantum computer, but to ensure we are the first to make one. For once one is made, the current codes are obsolete and we have to switch over. But since the new codes have not been out there and attacked with such constant ferocity, there is a hesitation to replace that which is working with that which probably works. It's a min/max.

As soon as the quantum computer is made, it will be obsolete. Well not really, in terms of code breaking very likely, but there are other computational tasks that it will excel at.
 
I'm not really sure what this means. Are we talking about increasing processing power by a factor of 3? I guess what I'm asking is if this means that when I hit "popcorn" on my microwave will that now mean that popcorn just appears instead of me having to go get one of those bags and, if so, will it do away with the unpopped kernels?

Conventional CPUs use hundreds of millions of Transistors configured into a a variety of gates to perform binary calculations.
Cpu's also use transistors in a " floating gate " configuration to form registers that hold data temporarily. Or Flash memory

Qubits would keep two particles suspended in a state of superposition. 0 or 1, or 1 and 1 or 0 and 0 all at the same time.

Particles that can take on this role allows for a " quantum speed up " to occur, and each qubit would allpw for a exponential increase in processing power.

Pack enough qubits into a working Quantum comp and wow.
 
I'm not really sure what this means. Are we talking about increasing processing power by a factor of 3? I guess what I'm asking is if this means that when I hit "popcorn" on my microwave will that now mean that popcorn just appears instead of me having to go get one of those bags and, if so, will it do away with the unpopped kernels?

If we can use photons rather than electrons, the density and speed of memory and CPUs can possible be dramatically increased, and scaled much smaller.
 
I'm not really sure what this means. Are we talking about increasing processing power by a factor of 3?

Nah, it doesn't really work like that. For most computations a quantum computer isn't going to be any better than a digital computer. It's just that for certain types of computations quantum computing is much, MUCH better.

One of those types of computations is factoring prime numbers, which normal digital computers suck at. Most of the cryptographic security that we utilize in our day to day lives (think: email, online banking, logging in to DP...) relies on the difficulty of factoring prime numbers. Quantum computing can break through this security. Which is a big problem (or big advantage for whoever develops one first).
 
Nah, it doesn't really work like that. For most computations a quantum computer isn't going to be any better than a digital computer. It's just that for certain types of computations quantum computing is much, MUCH better.

One of those types of computations is factoring prime numbers, which normal digital computers suck at. Most of the cryptographic security that we utilize in our day to day lives (think: email, online banking, logging in to DP...) relies on the difficulty of factoring prime numbers. Quantum computing can break through this security. Which is a big problem (or big advantage for whoever develops one first).

Maybe I'm missing something. Why is factoring a prime number so difficult? I always thought that what made a number "prime" was that its only factors were 1 and itself.
 
Maybe I'm missing something. Why is factoring a prime number so difficult? I always thought that what made a number "prime" was that its only factors were 1 and itself.

Sorry, factoring semi-prime numbers. A number that is the product of two primes.

Edit: and the key is that they have to be large. very large. Small numbers is no problem.
 
Sorry, factoring semi-prime numbers. A number that is the product of two primes.

Edit: and the key is that they have to be large. very large. Small numbers is no problem.

Yeah, I'm reading a little more on this. It seems that the current method of encryption involves multiplying two prime numbers. The result is another number that isn't prime but only has those two factors which then serve as the "key". So, for example, if you multiply 7 and 11 you get 77. You can then send someone a message tied to 77 but they would have to know that 7x11 is the only way to "unlock" that message. Obviously, that wouldn't be too difficult but sorting out the factors for 6697 would be a lot more work.
 
Also its worth noting that Qubits are in a state of superposition right up until the time they're observed or measured.

So they dont store or hold any information thats more complex than the average transistor once theyre observed. That is once their measured they're either a 1 or a 0

Its the intermediate steps during the computation that exploits the quantum properties of superposition and entanglement
 
It factors prime numbers better than anything else. It essentially would make obsolete all security codes.

Yes, this renders RSA obsolete. However, it is only a matter of time before new encryption technology is built from this technology.
 
Those interested in this topic might also like this article:

A photon–photon quantum gate based on a single atom in an optical resonator


That two photons pass each other undisturbed in free space is ideal for the faithful transmission of information, but prohibits an interaction between the photons. Such an interaction is, however, required for a plethora of applications in optical quantum information processing1. The long-standing challenge here is to realize a deterministic photon–photon gate, that is, a mutually controlled logic operation on the quantum states of the photons. This requires an interaction so strong that each of the two photons can shift the other’s phase by π radians.

----

We have modelled all known sources of error (see Methods) to reproduce the deviation of the experimental gate fidelity from unity. Here we quote the reductions in fidelity that each individual effect would introduce to an otherwise perfect gate. The largest contribution stems from using weak coherent pulses to characterize the gate and is therefore not intrinsic to the performance of the gate itself.
 
I'm not really sure what this means. Are we talking about increasing processing power by a factor of 3? I guess what I'm asking is if this means that when I hit "popcorn" on my microwave will that now mean that popcorn just appears instead of me having to go get one of those bags and, if so, will it do away with the unpopped kernels?

There are certain types of problems where you want to pick the best solution out of many possible solutions - ie. the best answer out of many possible answers. A quantum computer can come up with all the possible answers instantaneously - no matter how many possibilities there are - so that you can then pick the best one.
 
Yeah, I'm reading a little more on this. It seems that the current method of encryption involves multiplying two prime numbers. The result is another number that isn't prime but only has those two factors which then serve as the "key". So, for example, if you multiply 7 and 11 you get 77. You can then send someone a message tied to 77 but they would have to know that 7x11 is the only way to "unlock" that message. Obviously, that wouldn't be too difficult but sorting out the factors for 6697 would be a lot more work.

Its a algorithm issue. There's really no fast way to find the factors of a large prime number
So the current algorithms simply try every possible combination, or every number between 2 and that prime number.

Encryption Key strength equates to Encryption Key length measured in bits. Encryption key lengths of 256 bits would take the modern supercomputer millions of years to decipher, but a quantum processor's speed would increase exponentially with every added qubit

For those with some coding knowledge and time to kill here's a webbased Quantum simulator
Quantum Computing Playground

Who knows when or if actual quantum processors will be available forIthe average consumer but if they ever do I plan on naming my first Quantum PC Shroeder, short for " Shroedinger ".
 
Also its worth noting that Qubits are in a state of superposition right up until the time they're observed or measured.

So they dont store or hold any information thats more complex than the average transistor once theyre observed. That is once their measured they're either a 1 or a 0

Its the intermediate steps during the computation that exploits the quantum properties of superposition and entanglement

My first thought on the uses of a quantum computer is folding proteins.. If we can ever figure that out, we will have solved life, literally. No more disease, extending life possibly hundreds of years etc..

Tim-
 
It factors prime numbers better than anything else. It essentially would make obsolete all security codes.

then we know the NSA appreciates it
 
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