News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:D-Wave Systems Previews 2000-Qubit Quantum System by chriswarbo on Thursday September 29, 2016 @07:51AM (#12604549)
> Saying that it's not quantum because it's not general purpose is a complete distortion of the facts.

Being not-general-purpose means it's not a computer. If it's not a computer, it can't be a quantum computer.

As far as I can tell, D-wave's machines do appear to use quantum effects, but that doesn't make them quantum computers. They're quantum calculators.

Re:D-Wave Systems Previews 2000-Qubit Quantum System by johncolanduoni on Friday September 30, 2016 @12:33AM (#12610529)
A non-general quantum computer could still be considered to be a "quantum computer" in the way that physicists use the term. We'd definitely consider a computer that could "only" run Shor's algorithm to be one, so that's not a reason to write off the D-Wave.