I'm guessing quantum computing is the next big step. True parallel processing. I don't even fully understand how but it returns multiple results in one go.

On a normal pc if I wanted to check a phone book and make myself a list of names, you'd have to check each name one by one line in the entire phone book like this:

For each NAME in PHONEBOOK
{
If NAME matches "Sarah Conner" add to HITLIST
}

But on a quantum computer, it would check each name in the phonebook at the same time, making it as fast as only checking one name instead of millions.

Or think of it in chess. A quantum chess AI will know every possible move at once, instantly. There's no way even 1000 people could beat it.

Right now everything on a computer works in this one at a time process(even when spread across multiple cores), but it's so fast we don't notice, even to draw a single frame on the screen, pixels are drawn one at time to create the image in a loop similar to the example above. But presumably a quantum GPU would be able to draw all of the pixels at once. So it's millions of times faster.

I think we will probably see quantum chips as an add on to normal computers at first, kinda like how we send 3D maths to GPU instead of CPU, we'll send parallel type commands to the Quantum chip. It's at least a decade away probably two for home use though - assuming you'll even need home computers.

This comment was edited on Mar 25, 2023, 18:05.