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A short definition of a quantum computer is that it represents a theoretical device that would take advantage of the features of quantum mechanics, which is a branch of physics that studies energy and matter at atomic scales.

A quantum computer will not process information using electrons that pass through transistors, like the computers people use today. Instead it will process data through caged atoms, which are also called quantum bits or simply Qubits.

"It is a new paradigm for computation. It's doing computation differently," outlines Professor Arthur Ekert of the University of Oxford. It is worth mentioning that a bit represents an ordinary unit of information characterized by "1" or "0" in a conventional electronic computer. As for the qubit, then it is able to represent "1" or "0" at the same time, this ability being known as superposition.

Superposition makes it possible for the quantum computer to analyze many problems and come to the correct result of each problem at the same time. "It is like massively parallel processing but in one piece of hardware," comments Professor Ekert.

Such computer will be of great help, especially for solving problems that feature large amounts of information or variables.

"With quantum computing you are able to attack some problems on the time scales of seconds, which might take an almost infinite amount of time with classical computers," mentioned Professor David Awschalom of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A quantum computer in action for the first time was shown in February 2007 by D-Wave, a company with headquarters in Canada. Herb Martin, who at that time worked as CEO of D-Wave, said that the computer was a "substantial step forward in solving commercial and scientific problems which, until now, were considered intractable."

Despite the potential advantage that experts can get from quantum computers, there are still skeptical opinions. This is mainly due to the fact that currently the Canadian company presented very little information regarding its quantum computer.

"It was not quite what we understand as quantum computing. The demonstrations they showed could have been solved by conventional computers," said Professor Ekert. Nevertheless he still hopes that quantum computers will come of age in the end. According to Professor Ekert, these computers will be used for looking through large databases, making uncrackable ciphers or reproduce the atomic structures of substances.

"The really killer application will probably be in designing new materials or complex systems," mentioned Prof. Ekert.