http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=112051 ("http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=112051")

Notice the part where they say "we can make it go faster", or something to that effect. Money means nothing when your spending someones else's.

Woodmann

I can think of one major use for this: cracking encryption keys. 48-bit keys could be bruteforced in a few seconds at this speed...

it is all relative.... couple ywars ago... a group at MIT made a custom system to crack the des 56 bit keys in 22 hours with a $50k grant as a concept project... 20 years ago, the 56bit was considered un-breakable by bruteforce becuase it would take many magnatudes of order greater then the age of the galaxy to try every possile key... speculation is that 128bit 3DES only has 5-6 years of life expectancy left....

cant wait till the quantum computers are a reality....

korvak

I guess they're getting closer...

University of Michigan scientists have created the first quantum microchip
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70001-0.html

The Ion Trap Quantum Information Processor
http://www.qubit.org/research/IonTrap/iontrap1.html