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I have a question. Gradually quantum computers will emerge someday. So, nowadays making algorithm efficient is important; I mean, making it optimal to run as fast as possible. But once quantum PC emerges does the algorithm performance improvements are still important? Cheers

uml
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  • This is more suited for http://physics.stackexchange.com/ probably – BlackBear Sep 24 '12 at 14:54
  • @BlackBear Physicists neither know nor care about computational complexity. Computer scientists do, so this may belong to the computer science or theoretical computer science stack exchanges. –  Sep 24 '12 at 14:59
  • Yeah, I think so too. Then please don't put my question down. – uml Sep 24 '12 at 15:02
  • Always program for maintainability. Code is written once and read a thousand times. Improving performance usually means degrading readability and thus maintainability. If lots of thought is put into performance before bottlenecks are identified, you might just end up with software no one wants to maintain once finished. – Laoujin Sep 24 '12 at 15:08
  • It is too theoretical and "what if" question. And what if by then we will find out P=NP - and thus all problems that can be computed on quantum computer polynomially - will also be computeable polynomially on a RAM machine? (Or alternatively we will develop a non deterministic turing machine and will make both quantum and RAM machines obsolete) – amit Sep 24 '12 at 15:08
  • @delnan but the answer is more related to quantum physics than computer science in my opinion because it depends more on the computer's architecture than on the algorithm – BlackBear Sep 24 '12 at 15:32
  • @BlackBear From the little I know about quantum computing, a computer scientist would know this as a quantum computer is a different *model of computation*. There are algorithms specifically for quantum computers. I don't see what a physicist without a heavy CS background could contribute here. –  Sep 24 '12 at 15:35

2 Answers2

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I think its too early to worry about it. It also might be quantum computer will never made.

Boris Ivanov
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  • Quantum computers *already exist*. (See http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/search?q=quantum%20computer&restrict_sr=on for a list of overly enthusiastic articles.) And even if they never become practical, that doesn't necessarily invalidate the question. –  Sep 24 '12 at 15:37
  • If u call 128 qubit device a Computer then yes. – Boris Ivanov Sep 24 '12 at 15:44
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Quantum algorithms have the possibility of searching a complete number space for an answer in one go, that much is true. However, the algorithm you choose will still determine how many of these steps are needed, and whether you can pack the whole space with useful inputs.

Phil H
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