Communications of the ACM
Disentangling a Billion Dollar Opportunity
Leading representatives from academia, government, and industry recently met at the Institute of Physics to discuss the most recent advances in quantum information processing (QIP) and how to make the most of new opportunities available in the field. Venture capitalist Hermann Hauser gave a presentation in which he argued that an additional £50 million to £100 million needs to be invested to give the United Kingdom a global lead in a field with major market opportunities, potentially reaching £5 billion to £10 billion in returns.
Commercial applications associated with QIP progress include secure communications and giving computers the ability to solve problems traditional computers are unable to handle. In communications, quantum processing promises to deliver quantum cryptography, while in computer processing the benefits will come from quantum systems' ability to exist in mutually contradictory states simultaneously, which allows computers to explore a far wider range of possibilities than conventional machines.
"There is spectacular potential in the field of sensors, quantum cryptography, and computing," says Imperial College London professor Sir Peter Knight. "The U.K. started the second quantum revolution with the exploitation of quantum coherence in 1990 and now we need to ensure that we maintain a lead."
From Institute of Physics
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Abstracts Copyright © 2009 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA 
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