It’s also worth pointing that conventional computers could already solve these particular protein folding problems.
You have a computer doing something we could already do, but less efficiently than existing methods, which have not been impressively useful themselves?
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/08/d-wave-quantum-computer-solves-protein-folding-problem.html
You have a computer doing something we could already do, but less efficiently than existing methods, which have not been impressively useful themselves?
ETA: https://plus.google.com/103530621949492999968/posts/U11X8sec1pU
The G+ post explains what it’s good for pretty well, doesn’t it?
It’s not a dramatic improvement (yet), but it’s a larger potential speedup than anything else I’ve seen on the protein-folding problem lately.
You can duplicate that D-Wave machine on a laptop.
True, but somewhat besides the point; it’s the asymptotic speedup that’s interesting.
...you know, assuming the thing actually does what they claim it does. sigh
Also no asymptotic speedup.