Odd, Quantum Computers thread restart.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-01-12 12:23am

I think I might of deleted the thread accidently.

So could someone give me an explanation on how Quantuum Computers work, without becoming too dumb.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-01-12 12:29am

I wouldn't mind knowling how normal computers work.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-12 12:41am

It depends on the spin of subatomic particles. One is up, one is down, and one is neither. Kinda of like binary, but you have three states instead of two and you can do trillions of calculations with it.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-12 12:42am

I meant a trillion calculations a second....

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-01-12 01:11am

Just to add, the QC isn't that effective unless it uses algorythms (Or however you spell it...) developed specificially for it.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-01-12 01:13am

jaeger115 wrote:It depends on the spin of subatomic particles. One is up, one is down, and one is neither. Kinda of like binary, but you have three states instead of two and you can do trillions of calculations with it.

Actually, it uses the superposition of states to achieve a state where both states (zero and one, off and on, left and right) are active at the same time. If it were neither a zero or a one, it would not be capable of any sort of calculation, and a trinary system would be actually be harder to work with than a simple binary system.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-12 01:15am

Actually, it uses the superposition of states to achieve a state where both states (zero and one, off and on, left and right) are active at the same time. If it were neither a zero or a one, it would not be capable of any sort of calculation, and a trinary system would be actually be harder to work with than a simple binary system.

Right. Thanks for reminding me.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-01-12 01:22am

Exonerate wrote:Just to add, the QC isn't that effective unless it uses algorythms (Or however you spell it...) developed specificially for it.

True, but people have been developing algorithms for Quantum Computing for some time, long before the first Quantum Computers were even being built.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-01-12 07:43am

The algorithms and theory behind quantum computing is firmly established. But the physical computer itself is a bit of a problem so far.
But should they be able to get one up and running, it would revolutionize the computing.
Although DNA computer might be nice, too...

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-01-12 11:16am

So really all it is is a super powerful calculator?

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-01-12 12:09pm

Straha wrote:So really all it is is a super powerful calculator?

Your brain is a super-powerful calculator, too. So?
But you'll be able to do things with a quantum computer you can't do with a "normal" computer.

For instance, current encryption algorithms would be moot, at least those relying on prime numbers.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-01-12 12:36pm

The most powerful supercomputer to date can multiply 3 by 5 on 7 atoms.

Think about that, 7 atoms. And theres like 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in a cubic centimeter of material.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2003-01-12 12:46pm

Any possibility for some sweet computer games on them?

Cthulhu-chan · Post by **Cthulhu-chan** » 2003-01-12 12:59pm

Not for a good long time. The equipment involved in making quantum computing possible is big, heavy and expensive. Even once they get QCs to the point where they are better than silicon, reducing the size of the equipment will still be a problem.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-01-12 01:23pm

actually, the best supercomputer to date is pretty damn small. i believe its about as big as a refridgerator.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-01-12 01:39pm

Even a small quantum computer will put any Cray to shame.

Just consider: A quantum computer does calculations with "qubits", which are both "0" and "1" at the same time.
So when you do calculations on say, 100 electrons, you do those calculations on all the numbers those 100 electrons can represent: 2^100 numbers.
That's incredible parallelism you have. You are not bound by the deterministic nature of "normal" computers. You might even be able to "crack" NP-complete problems with them...

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2003-01-12 02:37pm

The idea is that you can run larger calculations on it in far less time. Purely scientific, there is some element missing that can't be brought up. RAM, I think, is really low on these time of computers or some other processing ability. So don't expect to be playing games on one any time.

The Teacher · Post by **The Teacher** » 2003-01-12 07:07pm

I read an artical saying that they were considering NOT using silicon in them. I think they were planing on using diamons and, uh, charcole or something. Carbon, thats it. they were going to stack the carbon atoms so they could arrange it like...yeah.

How bout nano drives? Does anyone know much about them? The first one will be released in 2005

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2003-01-16 11:35pm

RAM, I think, is really low on these time of computers or some other processing ability. So don't expect to be playing games on one any time.

RAM, as we know it, has nothing to do with QCs. RAM exist because of the design of the common computer architecture. Its basically a stop-gap because large L1 caches are stupidenously expensive. The same goes hard drives, because RAM and L1/L2 caches can't 'remember' once the power goes off.