• Question: What is the purpose of the "quantum computer"? Will it display data like a digital computer?

    Asked by orangemonkey1 to Chris on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Chris Mansell

      Chris Mansell answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      Hi orangemonkey1,

      Have a look at

      /quantumj13-zone/2013/06/16/what-are-some-good-uses-for-quantum-computers/

      for your first question.

      You’re second question brings up a good point. The short answer is that it probably won’t display data like a digital computer. Rather, quantum computers and digital computers will work together. Just like a digital computer sends certain tasks to its graphical processing unit (GPU) and in a sense is the boss of the GPU, we need digital computers to boss around the quantum computers. So quantum computers aren’t here to replace ordinary ones. Digital computers will be supplemented by ones that can do calculations in a quantum-mechanical way.

Comments

  • Photo: orangemonkey1

    orangemonkey1 commented on :

    Thanks! if you could please elaborate on the term “exceptionally faster” I would be grateful. You’ve sparked an interest and I will be sure to do some more reading.

    • Photo: Chris

      Chris commented on :

      Hi orangemonkey1,

      I have edited my profile page to show a graph to illustrate what this means. The phrase isn’t actually “exceptionally faster” (unless I made a typing mistake). It should be exponentially faster. Have you learnt about exponentials at school? If so, I can say more. If not, just look at much quicker the quantum algorithm is than the ordinary task it. As you can see from the graph, it isn’t feasible to use ordinary computers for factorising large numbers but it is with a quantum computer. This astounded quantum physicists when this was discovered in 1994. It also astounded people called “complexity theorists” who are computer scientists who study how the runtime of an algorithm scales with the size of its input (which is actually what the graph is showing).

      Chris