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back to article Future quantum computers could be made of... silicon?

In a slightly retro move, a top Blighto-Dutch boffinry alliance has declared yet another method of creating a practical "qubit" - a building block of the postulated weird yet puissant quantum computers of the future. This time the tiny piece of unknowable information is contained, not in some exotic new ultra-substance, but …

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  1. Lionel Baden
    IT Angle

    im sorry

    But the statement "and they will be particularly useful for security because they can quickly crack existing codes and create un-crackable codes,"

    This sounds just like bollocks !!

    is it as good as saying that "hey if we had warp engines we can easily traverse space !!!"

    Which is a equally retarted comment :/

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    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)
      Reply Icon

      Re: im sorry

      Oh, Lionel.

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      1. Lionel Baden
        Reply Icon

        comment needs more detail

        Ie. it is as easy as stating

        If we had warp engines we could goto the stars

        But nobody actually knows how we could build a ship. how a computer / metals / bio would react going past the speed of light etc etc ...

        Yes fundamentally we could go to the stars because the major component needed has been found but in reality it could be useless :/

        e.g. we can go that fast but due to some constant need in the universe we die :/

        so in the same respect yes we can build a quantum chip but can it actually be used in a simple a manner as they scientist is proposing. yes we can make it but can we really utilize it

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    2. A J Stiles
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      LOL true dat

      Nothing at all can break a one time pad, because the same ciphertext could have been generated from any of these plaintexts:

      ATTACK THE BRIDGE AT NOON

      DEFEND THE FORT AT SUNSET

      MY DAUGHTER HAS THE PILES

      Mine's the one with a Vigenère square in the pocket and a packet of Rizla papers with strange text on them.

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      1. Lou Gosselin
        Reply Icon

        Re: LOL true dat

        Or put more generally, any encryption where the key contains significantly fewer bits than the data encrypted is (ultimately) at risk.

        Each piece of data encrypted reveals further information about the possible set of keys which could have generated the ciphertext from the plaintext. In this sense, we already know how to crack almost all of today's codes algorithmically, but those algorithms require enormous parallel clusters.

        The only way we can assure permanent security is, as you mentioned, to use one time pads. Since the key >= data, no repeating pattern exists in the ciphertext.

        What is interesting about quantum encryption is that it relies on physics instead of mathematics to keep secrets. I'd be very interested in learning more about it, sometimes it's hard to believe it would even work.

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        1. John Greenwood 1
          Reply Icon

          Further Reading

          @ Lou - Try reading Schrodinger's Kittens. It's a little hard going, but does go into how Quatum Mechanics can be used to create encryption keys.

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      2. Chemist
        Reply Icon

        Re : LOL true dat

        Agree entirely - NOTHING can break a one time pad !

        Anyone downvoting AJS is ignorant

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    3. Denarius
      Reply Icon

      @Lionel: Insulting Sarah ?

      retarted ? Shurley not

      BTW, quantum computers may crack codes , but not create uncrackable codes, just really secure ones. If the hardware does not leak extra photons of course

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  2. Munchausen's proxy
    Pint

    Tip top.

    I don't want to say you've outdone yourself since by now we've come to expect this level of invention, but "quantumly superposited electron moggy" really should be taught in all the particle-bothering textbooks.

    The world would be a better place, assuming it survives the dimensionally rending hijinks of the LHC gang.

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  3. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    FAIL

    A qubit is not a cat.

    The only paradox lies in illiteracy.

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    1. Chemist
      Reply Icon

      Re : A qubit is not a cat.

      On the other hand Qubit sounds quite a good NAME for a cat !

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  4. The old man from scene 24

    Another qubit discovered?

    Soon we'll have enough for a whole qubyte!

    Ah, this takes me back to the heady days of non-quantum computing when researchers were coming up almost daily with new kinds of bit. Who could forget, for example, the hole in a piece of cardboard or the fiendishly clever toggle switch?

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  5. thefutureboy
    Welcome

    A more important yet unanswered question...

    What was the name of Schrodinger's cat?

    And I, for one, welcome our Paradoxically Simultaneously Both Dead And Alive Feline Overlords.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Won't somebody think of the cats?

    Maybe we should tip PETA. Just to see into what state they'll collapse.

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  7. Wommit
    Paris Hilton

    So they're

    going to build a computer which exists and doesn't exist at the same time.

    Gonna be a bugger to type on.

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    1. adnim
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Only if you look at it

      The wave front expressed by such a quantum computer will in fact collapse and thus enter a single state should it be measured. Looking at it with eyes or touching it with fingers is considered measurement and this would destroy the superposition.

      Therefore if one could type into this machine without looking at or touching it, it should work very well indeed. There is a reason that trees fall over in the forest when no one is looking.

      Now if I could only find a pussy that could be in two places at once... I could eat my cake whilst it is being made.

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      1. The old man from scene 24
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        Re: Only if you look at it

        Sounds remarkably like the new iPhone.

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    2. Paul RND*1000
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      letters and/or digits

      So, exactly like the last computer to be built which had the word "Quantum" associated with it?

      Mine's the one with the Microdrive cartridges in the pocket.

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  8. AlgernonFlowers4

    Software Error?

    If it doesn't work will it be called a boob?

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  9. Sam Liddicott

    one time pads...

    Once time pads might be crackable if they are not truly random; after all, a one time pad is merely a key that is longer than the plain text; but it still has to be truly random.

    Sam

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  10. Sam Liddicott

    That darn superposed cat

    What a poseur; but surely the cat is an observer of itself?

    All alone the cat licks it's paw and feels a speck of dirt come away from the clean fur.

    The cat mews and hears itself

    The cat bangs on the feaking lid and vows to scratch the lab technician when it gets out.

    The cat thinks, therefore it is.

    Sam

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    1. Chemist
      Reply Icon

      Re : "The cat thinks, therefore it is."

      or isn't

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  11. David Dingwall
    Alert

    Blake's Seven anyone?

    better still assemble in a clear plastic box, the design requiring flashy lights, and call it ORAC

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  12. brainwrong

    Duh

    I think you'll find that quanyum computers will be made from fairy dust.

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  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple should make the first quantum computer

    It'll deter people from trying to upgrade their machine if they know popping open the box might kill the undead cat that makes everything work.

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    zombieism, a character of F. domesticus

    On a good day, I cannot tell whether my cat is alive or not. So, again, why did Schrodinger find such ambiguity noteworthy?

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    1. Xerxes
      Reply Icon
      Headmaster

      I think you meant...

      ... Felis catus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=9685) rather than F. domesticus.

      Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben used the name F domesticus. This name, and F silvestris domesticus, are sometimes seen, but are not considered valid scientific names under the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. F silvestris is generally adopted for the wild species and F catus is sometimes seen in print for the domestic cat.

      * http://www.messybeast.com/breed-subspecies.htm

      Cheers!

      X!

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    2. Chemist
      Reply Icon

      Re : zombieism, a character of F. domesticus

      I think the important question is whether your cat cares if you are alive or not !

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        Re : zombieism, a character of F. catus

        As any lord of the manor, of course he cares whether his "staff" is alive or not - how else to daily reaffirm his status?

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  15. Mike Flex

    Excellent punnery

    "undead moggy-chip, hefty boffinery mag" Top class, and from Mr Page, so it's a welcome change from articles saying that we should dump the British defence industry and buy American.

    Oh, I see we have one of those as well.

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  16. AlgernonFlowers4

    Quantum Compters at Rock Bottom Prices!

    I have quite few of these boxed up and ready to ship in my garage - no reasonable offer refused - will ship but can't be responsible for contents of box when opened!

    1 0
  17. Chris Fleming
    Coat

    only if you...

    Then we all have power over... Just by ... we have changed it.

    Then what was it?

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