IBM has built a seven-qubit Quantum Computer that is capable of executing Shor's Algorithm to factor simple numbers. This is the first step toward complex Quantum Computers that can factor very large numbers into their primes, which would, among other things, compromise most cryptosystems in use today.
The simplest meaningful instance of Shor's Algorithm is finding the factors of the number 15, which requires a seven-qubit quantum computer. IBM chemists designed and made a new molecule that has seven nuclear spins — the nuclei of five fluorine and two carbon atoms — which can interact with each other as qubits, be programmed by radio frequency pulses and be detected by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instruments similar to those commonly used in hospitals and chemistry labs.
The IBM scientists controlled a vial of a billion-billion (1018) of these molecules so they executed Shor's algorithm and correctly identified 3 and 5 as the factors of 15. "Although the answer may appear to be trivial, the unprecedented control required over the seven spins during the calculation made this the most complex quantum computation performed to date," Amer said.
