Quantum computer beats conventional PC in speed test

New York Times : What defines a quantum computer is not particularly clear, but one of the usual characteristics is that a machine that make use of quantum mechanical effects will be much faster than a traditional computer. D-Wave Systems has developed, marketed, and even sold what they claim is the first commercial quantum computer, which has now outperformed a traditional computer in an algorithm processing test. While working as a consultant for D-Wave, Catherine McGeoch of Amherst University tested the machine’s capabilities. She presented the machine with three optimization problems âmdash;ones that require finding the best possible solution, such as the shortest path in a mapâmdash;and compared the speed of the results with those of a conventional computer. In two of the three tests, the D-Wave computer only slightly outperformed the traditional computer, but in the third, it returned a result 3600 times as quickly.