Re:Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone wo...
by bawolff on Monday April 27, 2020 @12:15AM
(#22992843)
Im not an expert on quantum computers but I'm not aware of any applications in the embedded space.
Generally quantum computers are good for three things
* factoring numbers (and other highly related order-finding problems). RIP RSA, but not that applicable outside of crypto.
* unstructured search (brute forcing a problem in only O(sqrt(n)) gueses instead of an average of n/2 gueses). Certainly useful...but its not a big enough speedup to be earth shattering.
* simulating various quantum systems (so scientists can do experiments easier). Probably by far the most useful/practical application in the near/medium term.
There's not a whole lot else they are good for (that we know of, yet)
Generally quantum computers are good for three things
* factoring numbers (and other highly related order-finding problems). RIP RSA, but not that applicable outside of crypto.
* unstructured search (brute forcing a problem in only O(sqrt(n)) gueses instead of an average of n/2 gueses). Certainly useful...but its not a big enough speedup to be earth shattering.
* simulating various quantum systems (so scientists can do experiments easier). Probably by far the most useful/practical application in the near/medium term.
There's not a whole lot else they are good for (that we know of, yet)