X-Message-Number: 12323
From: "Igor Artyuhov" <>
Subject: Reply to George Smith (Message #12317)
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 16:20:35 +0400

>>>
If being able to "fix" the spin on an atom such that it can then
be used to digitize information (per Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle)
isn't a "quantum computer" and if working at the molecular level isn't
"molecular nanotechnology" (per E. Drexler), I give up! What else should we
call it? Itsy-bitsy atom-spinny computers?
<<<

Quantum computers (will) have a strongly different architecture and use
totally different algorithms since they are based on the fact that the spin
of an atom has two values simultaneously. N electrons are in 2^N states at
once, so quantum computer with N quantum bits of memory can "work in 2^N
states simultaneously". In theory it can be build using _macroscopic_ as
well as atomic/molecular quantum elements such as so called quantum dots.
A good tutorial on quantum computing can be found at
http://chemphys.weizmann.ac.il/~schmuel/comp/comp.html

Igor Artyuhov.
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