[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Researchers claim quantum device performs 9, 000-year calculation in microseconds

[David Lees]

Adam,
Thanks for the link to that nice article, which explains this concept
demonstration of optical elements working in the predicted manner, but is
NOT a general purpose computer capable of cracking passwords.  There is a
huge amount of hype around quantum computing so people should read press
releases carefully.  For those of us old enough to remember computing in
the 1960s, there was a flurry of activity and funding over optical
computing using holograms and Fourier optics.  My recollection is it arose
from work at U Michigan to process SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) imagery
by Leith and Upatnieks (they were key inventors of the off-axis hologram).
There was lots of funding at the time and hype over the computational speed
of 2D Fourier Transforms done optically.  Compared with the microsecond CPU
cycle times of the era, on single processors, parallel computation at the
'speed of light' in thousands of channels sounded great.  But the details
commonly overlooked in the hype of the time were limitations on conversion
from electrical to optical signals and back, the dynamic range limits of
the optics and the special purpose nature of the computations.

David Lees

On Thu, Jun 2, 2022 at 10:36 AM Adam Broun <abroun at gmail.com> wrote:

>  First of all, this development is a highly specific use-case, not a
> general purpose computer.  Here's a better explanation
> https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/06/manipulating-photons-for-microseconds-tops-9000-years-on-a-supercomputer
>
> Second, quantum computing is likely to break encryption that relies on
> prime factorization being hard, which underpins a lot of public key
> systems.  But many symmetric encryption algos are unaffected.  So it will
> be a challenge, but not the end of the world.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 2, 2022 at 10:04 AM Steve Isenberg <smisenberg at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> So this means that the security we've been feeling using complex
>> passwords may end soon.
>>
>> According to the article, quantum computers solve a 9,000 year problem in
>> 36 microseconds.  Amazing.
>> So it could conceivably solve a 9,000,000 year problem in 36 milliseconds
>> (36,000 microseconds) or a 250,000,000 year problem in a second.
>>
>> From (
>> https://vpnalert.com/resources/how-long-does-it-take-to-crack-a-password/)
>> it would take up to 46,000,000 years to crack a 15 character password using
>> numbers, upper and lower case letters using a conventional computer; with a
>> quantum computer this would be about 1/5 second.
>>
>> From (
>> https://www.komando.com/security-privacy/check-your-password-strength/783192/)
>> if you use a 18 character password with numbers, upper & lower case
>> letters, and symbols it would take a conventional computer up to
>> 7,000,000,000,000 (7qd) years; a quantum computer would take up to 28,000
>> seconds, under 8 hours.
>>
>> Regards,
>> -steve
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 2, 2022 at 9:08 AM <palbin24 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Interesting overview of the current state of quantum computing
>>>
>>> https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/quantum_advantage_canada/
>>>
>>> Peter
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