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This flavour of quantum computing has no obvious implications for crypto, and the technology isn't transferrable to a computer which would. The problem is that
by ctz 12y ago
This flavour of quantum computing has no obvious implications for crypto, and the technology isn't transferrable to a computer which would.
The problem is that quantum annealing (basically, solving complex optimisation problems) is a small subset of what a full quantum computer can do. The algorithms we know can break crypto: Shor's algorithm (integer factorisation) and Grover's algorithm (database search) can only run on full quantum computers. eg. so far Shor's algorithm has only ever factored 21 into 3x7 (equivalent to breaking 5-bit RSA).
- TTPrograms 12y agoI'm under the impression that quantum annealing is quantum turing complete - see: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/11063/can-quantum-annealing-be-used-for-factorization https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/11063/can-quantu... Things like Shor's are more obvious in gate based architectures, and would likely be faster - unfortunately there's not been as much as much scaling in building those architectures. DWave has stated that they're also less interested in these sorts of applications, probably for performance issues as well as actual value. Enabling the NSA to break crypto is ok, but selling 20 general purpose systems optimizers for drug manufacturers, engineering firms etc. might be more profitable or more interesting to them now. DWave addresses this distinction here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/01/10/this-company-sold-google-a-quantum-computer-heres-how-it-works/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/01/10...