Qitmind

in 1982, the nobel prize-winning physicist richard feynman thought up the idea of a 'quantum computer', a computer that uses the effects of quantum mechanics to its advantage [23]. for some time, the notion of a quantum computer was primarily of theoretical interest only, but recent developments have bought the idea to everybody's attention. one such development was the invention of an algorithm to factor large numbers on a quantum computer, by peter shor (bell laboratories). by using this algorithm, a quantum computer would be able to crack codes much more quickly than any ordinary (or classical) computer could. in fact a quantum computer capable of performing shor's algorithm would be able to break current cryptography techniques in a matter of seconds. with the motivation provided by this algorithm, the topic of quantum computing has gathered momentum and researchers around the world are racing to be the first to create a practical quantum computer. thanks to imperial college! w