D-Wave Two Quantum Computer

D-Wave Systems recently released their D-Wave Two quantum computer, purchased for use by Google and NASA. The machine is designed to run only certain types of algorithms and is therefore limited in its problem solving abilities, but for those problems which it can be applied, it processes approximately 3200x faster than any classical computer and runs on a 512 qubit register. Of course, this costs many millions of dollars to develop, as stated it can only process certain types of algorithms, and it must be kept cooled to very low temperatures making it of very limited use. What do you think will be the implications of the D-Wave Two, as well as what it may mean for the future progress of quantum computing?

Here's a link to a BBC article about it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22554494

Edited May 20, 201312 yr by Sato