4 ms·

Isn't O(1) an oversimplification? In comparison wouldn't electrical computers then also be able to simulate all electrical effects in O(1) Time?

• dragontamer 3y ago
  > In comparison wouldn't electrical computers then also be able to simulate all electrical effects in O(1) Time? Yes and OpAmps / analog electrical circuits were way faster than digital computers for decades because of this. When you know that the current of a diode is related to the exponent of the diode's voltage, you can do silly things like calculate logarithms using OpAmps and diodes in a mere nanosecond or so. Most 1980s synths used OpAmps as the basis of the math / calculations for signal processing, because digital computers just weren't fast enough to compete yet. Those circuits still work today. Alas, digital computers are too cheap, accurate, and fast these days so nearly everything is digital now. ---------- I guess your point though is that maybe a quantum computer (or OpAmp / electrical computer) can only physically simulate the effects that the hardware contains. Ex: an electrical computer cannot simulate BJTs unless it has a BJT somewhere. So it would still come down to the computers physical load out. Similarly, a Quantum simulation on a quantum simulation computer would only have some subset of primitives implemented.