Scientists perform quantum computer simulation on vanilla PC

We've seen what (little) a quantum computer can do, but a pair of curious scientists flipped the equation around and sent a humdrum PC to do a supercomputer's work. Professor Peter Drummond and Dr. Piotr Deuar were able to "successfully simulate a collision of two laser beams from an atom laser using an everyday desktop computer," which would typically only be attempted on a substantially more powerful machine. Notably, the achievement wasn't entirely without flaw, as the purported randomness in the testing eventually "swamped everything" and forced the simulation to be halted in order to gather any useful data whatsoever. Unfortunately, we're all left to wonder exactly what kind of machine was used to chew through such grueling calculations (Compubeaver, perhaps?), but feel free to throw out your suggestions below.

[Via Physorg, image courtesy of ACQAO]

[Andir3.0 @ Jun 29th 2007 11:54PM]

Maybe it was one of those iPhone things everyone seems to be talking about?

I kid, I kid... you have to admit it's getting old though :(

[Mickey Jones @ Jun 29th 2007 11:57PM]

... and this relates to the iPhone how?

[EngadgetFanBoi @ Jun 30th 2007 12:00AM]

geez, you guys have to get over the bevy of iPhone posts...

last time i checked, the iPhone is a gadget - a pretty important gadget that people find particularly interesting. so naturally, it would make sense to for engadget to post about it, right?

and they posted feed links without any iphone info... twice! sheesh!

[Huey2k2 @ Jun 30th 2007 12:09AM]

I guess this is an iPhone prototype? Neato!

[Blake @ Jun 30th 2007 12:25AM]

In before Doom.

[jackrackam @ Jun 30th 2007 1:21AM]

It wasn't actuall laser simulations! It was just testing the accuracy of the lasers in StarCraft on an IBM with Win95. 1GB HARDRIVE HERE I COME!

[Camperton @ Jun 30th 2007 2:46AM]

that headline should read

Scientists perform quantum computer simulation on vanilla iPhone

sorry.

[HyperHacker @ Jun 30th 2007 4:17AM]

[insert iPhone joke here]

[Ghen @ Jun 30th 2007 7:28AM]

The missing details about machine power make the article useless :\ I'd like to know how old the "substantially more powerful machine" is they're talking about.