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> So classical computers can generate randomness if you have the right circuits for it. That is by definition not a classical computer. It's not a quantum com
by treyd 1y ago
> So classical computers can generate randomness if you have the right circuits for it.
That is by definition not a classical computer. It's not a quantum computer, but it's probabilistic in a limited sense.
- dekhn 1y agoI don't think anybody wrote a description of a classical computer that excludes components that generate harvestable random noise. Effectively all computers are probabilistic, it's just that the probabilities for instructions, memory fetches, bus transfers, etc, have such low error probabilities that you will likely go years without directly observing one.
- treyd 1y agoA classical computer is a pure mathematical object. No real-world computer completely embodies the concept, but they vary in how much they try to hide it. Rdrand is an admission that no they're really not classical computers, and it turns out that that is useful in certain scenarios.
- dekhn 1y agooh you're talking about deterministic turing machines (have not heard that referred to as "classical" computer before- typically when people say that, they mean an actual physical real-world computer, not a theoretical model.