Computers at the speed of light.

I told a group of computer nerds about this technology about a year ago- they all looked at me as if I was crazy.


Super Fast PCs Near As Chip Passes Maths
Test

Super-fast and ultra-small computers have been brought one
step closer to reality with the successful test of a new
penny-sized chip?

Traditional computer micro chips are as small as they are likely to get
The optical quantum chip does away with traditional circuitry and instead uses parti cles of "whizzing" light?
Scientists asked the "photonic" chip to find the prime factors of 15 and although it took longer to work it out than a
schoolchild could have it produced the answer - 3 x 5?
The test is a massive breakthrough because it is the first time the chip.s processin g power has been condensed into
such a small size?
Normally to store the same amount of processing power it would need a pack the size of a work bench sitting beside
it?
The chip could eventually pave the way for "super-powerful quantum computers"?
Cherry Lewisg spokeswoman for the team at Bristol Universityg explained why we need this technology?
"We are almost getting to the point now where conventional computers cannot go any smaller so we need to go
down a completely new route?
"We are talking nano-scale? Particles of light?"
Quantum technology aims to exploit the unique properties of quantum mechanics - the physics theory that explains
how the world works at microscopic levels?
The main advantage is that unlike transistors in a traditional computer quantum particles can be in two states at the
same time?
Also photons are relatively noise-free and can transmit information at the speed of light?
In the near future the technology could eventually be applied to making internet con nections secure and to
developing new materials and medicines?
PhD student Alberto Politig who performed the experiment with colleague Jonathan Matthews said: "Finding prime
factors may seem like a mathematical abstraction but the task lies at the heart of modern encryption schemes
including those used for secure internet communication?"
The results have been published in the magazine Science?