The Quantum Computing Challenge

  • Authors:
  • Paul M. B. Vitányi

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • Informatics - 10 Years Back. 10 Years Ahead.
  • Year:
  • 2001

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

The laws ofp hysics imposes limits on increases in computing power. Two ofthe se limits are interconnect wires in multicomputers and thermodynamic limits to energy dissipation in conventional irreversible technology. Quantum computing is a new computational technology that promises to eliminate problems ofl atency and wiring associated with parallel computers and the rapidly approaching ultimate limits to computing power imposed by the fundamental thermodynamics. Moreover, a quantum computer will be able to exponentially improve known classical algorithms for factoring, and quadratically improve every classical algorithm for searching an unstructured list, as well as give various speedups in communication complexity, by exploiting unique quantum mechanical features. Finally, a quantum computer may be able to simulate quantum mechanical systems, something which seems out ofthe question for classical computers, thus reaching the ultimate goal ofrep lacing actual quantum mechanical experiments with simulated ones. On the downside, for some problems quantum mechanical computers cannot significantly improve the performance of classical computers.