• Question: How many average computers is this quantum computer worth ? By that I mean performance and power etc

    Asked by tomasforzani to Chris on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Chris Mansell

      Chris Mansell answered on 24 Jun 2013:


      Hi tomasforzai,

      Quantum computers could solve problems that ordinary computers can’t tackle efficiently. This means that even if we had loads and loads of ordinary computers, we still wouldn’t get to the answer in a reasonable amount of time. For certain types of probkems, ordinary computers would take billions of years whilst quantum computers would be expected to take months. This is because these problems can only be solved efficiently by exploiting quantum effects to make the computation efficient. I have a graph on my profile page showing the run-times of ordinary and quantum computers for the task of factorising large numbers.

      Chris

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