A quantum computer is expected to perform calculations thousands
and even millions of times faster than any computer we have
today. In terms of a performance breakthrough, this is off the
charts. This makes our current systems look like the stone tablet
and the abacus.
But don't whip out your credit card yet. We're talking a major
overhaul of computing as we know it. For instance, in the current
binary world, things revolve around the simple one and zero. In
the strange world of quantum physics, things can be both one and
zero at the same time. Try programming an "if...then" statement
with those new parameters!
Once you get past the strangeness, the power is astounding. For
instance, to retrieve a piece of data from four possible sources,
a traditional computer must go to each source and check it before
moving on to the next. A quantum computer can work with all four
sources at once and derive the result in a single query--
impossible under our current computing conventions.
The very purpose of our life is happiness - the Dalai Lama