CUBA AND CHINA JOINING EFFORTS: LARGE SCALE QUANTUM COMPUTINGby Manuel Cereijo These kind of computers could, among other functions, crack the toughest codes. Computers that harness the weirdness of quantum mechanics could smash conventional encryption systems by factoring gigantic numbers fast-and factoring the product of two large prime numbers is the only way standard codes can be broken. The job would take conventional computers decades, not minutes. This ability to perform a single calculation on two numbers at once is what makes quantum computing so valuable, especially in factoring for decryption. Instead of factoring by trying out lots of answers one after another, as a conventional computer would, a quantum computer can, essentially, try all at the same time. China and Cuba have joined forces, at the Bejucal electronic base, to work on the development of such computers. Only MIT, the University of Michigan, and the University of Innsbruck, Austria, are known to be working in this new and important field.
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