Future Quantum Computers Begin to Take Shape

Future Quantum Computers Begin to Take Shape - Technology & science - Science - DiscoveryNews.com - msnbc.com:

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Cracking the most secure codes in existence might require a computer farm covering much of North America to run at full speed for 10 years, even if it did not consume all of the Earth's energy in a single day.

By contrast, a future quantum computer the size of a building might only take 16 hours and have about the same power requirements as today's supercomputers.

Science still remain decades away from making a quantum computer capable of harnessing the wildly strange behavior of particles on small scales -- the "quantum mechanics" that allow particles to exist in two different states at once. But researchers have finally reached the point where they can begin to envision what a quantum computer might look like.