DailyDirt: Who Cares About Moore's Law Anymore?

The end of Moore's law is basically here already, but it's not such a surprise. It's maybe more surprising that it's lasted so long. What are we going to do now that our computers aren't getting exponentially better? Try completely different ways of making computers, of course. Quantum computers are making some significant advances, even though they're not ready to compete with regular silicon processors just yet. Here are just a few new quantum milestones that could lead to some re-thinking of encryption schemes and programming courses.

• A quantum computer built from just 5 atoms demonstrates a possible new way to build a practical quantum computer with many, many more qubits. The researchers working on this demo used Shor's algorithm to factor the number 15 (ok, not exactly encryption-breaking yet), but it's another step towards scaling up a quantum computer that could do calculations that are impractical for traditional computers today. [url]
• A quantum spin liquid could be useful for making a quantum computer someday -- if we can figure out how to manipulate them and measure them correctly. Cooling exotic materials down to near absolute zero is a bit problematic, but a few supercomputers in the 1980s were cooled with liquid nitrogen, so it's not impossible to imagine liquid-helium-cooled quantum computers will exist for a while until technology improves. [url]
• Optical qubits are making some progress, too. Researchers have achieved "multiphoton entangled quantum states" -- for the first time -- and they say it should be scalable.... [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

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