-- At 03:14 PM 1/28/98 -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
Recently, an algorithm was developed for factoring numbers on a quantum computer which runs in steps where is small [1]. This is roughly quadratic in the input size, so factoring a 1000 digit number with such an algorithm would require only a few million steps. The implication is that public key cryptosystems based on factoring may be breakable.
However quantum computers so far envisaged (but not yet built) can only do a few steps before they lose quantum coherence. So far factoring a four bit number is well beyond the state of the art in quantum computation. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG W7fOL2Uec3TpIWpLT+xcgrKGVfoQL3gmNdcADrkN 41SXVwnn/Gy+C42ptPxygaLgt1miSt2a1T/6/b9p8 --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/