Web Quantum Computer Simulator

Heraklit writes "As reported on Heise News, the Frauenhofer Institute of Computer Architecture and Software Technology has made available the first online quantum computer simulator - it will be simulating up to 31 quantum bits, for testing new advanced quantum algorithms. Behind the scenes, it is a 32 node Athlon 3200 Myrinet Linux Cluster with 56GByte RAM! Now imagine the computing power of a few hundred qubits, if ever constructed..."

powerful only for certain algorithms

[Anonymous Coward]

'Now imagine the computing power of a few hundred qubits, if ever constructed...'

A few hundred qubits would be very powerful at factoring numbers and other such specialized algorithms. But as far as linux and other "normal" software goes, a few hundred qubit computer won't be any better than a few hundred bit software.

Patent Fun

[RareEYE]

Aren't these the same folks that hold the MP3 encoder patents? If they are the same people I wonder when they'll patent the quantum computing algorithms?

Erm, can somebody explain Quantum Computing?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've googled for it, and found articles and discussions on quantum computing no end, and seen the talk in computer magazines, but unfortunately none of the stuff has managed to even begin to explain to me how it really works. I just don't get the hang of it. (Maybe I'm just uncommonly thick... But I distinctly got the feeling that some of those editors weren't any better off...)

I would really appreciate it if somebody could just briefly unfold it here, in fairly layman terms. What kind of problems do you solve with it? (How?) How do you program a computer like that? Does the architecture have anything in common with "traditional" computers? How do you manufacture those computers? Et cetera, anything is welcome that you feel could help explain it...

I have understood that a "bit" in a QC can have any value at any given time, and that's usually where I fall off already... Thanks for any attepmts from you wiser folks! :)

Re:Patent Fun

[Anonymous Coward]

The "Fraunhofer Gesellschaft" is a large german organization with over 80 institutes in different areas of research. More about it at

http://www.fraunhofer.de/english/

Re:powerful only for certain algorithms

[Anonymous Coward]

Your statement is accurate. However, it won't satisfy the hype-hungry slashweenies.