Robert Hettinga wrote:
Quantum computers, if ever built, will be able to factor numbers beyond the reach of traditional methods. The development of quantum computation would mean the demise of RSA and other public key cryptosystems. We show the main idea of Shor's quantum factoring algorithm and assess the complexity of the circuit implementing the algorithm. We describe the current state of experimental quantum computing and the most promising ideas concerning the implementation of quantum logic.
Classical supercomputers has recently reached the computational power of one teraflop (10^12 floating point operations per second). We will discuss the current effort to built a petaflops scale computer (peta = 10^15) based on the combination of advanced technologies such as superconducting digital electronics, cryogenic CMOS, optical switches, and holographic memories. Breaking existing ciphers is certainly one of the primary applications of this new class of computing machines.
For a Kris Gay's biography please check: http://www.ee.rochester.edu/~ee492/bio/bio.html
I think till quantum computers will crack RSA keys in days or less, it will take some time, because todays quantum computers have only about 3 Q-bits and factoring of a RSA key takes much more. Bjoern Ganslandt