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So i found out about this story today:

Silicon chip enables mass-manufacture of quantum technologies

Press release issued 3 September 2012


An international research collaboration led by scientists from the University of Bristol, UK, has developed a new approach to quantum computing that could lead to the mass-manufacture of new quantum technologies.
Scientists from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics have developed a silicon chip that will pave the way to the mass-manufacture of miniature quantum chips. The announcement was made at the launch of the 2012 British Science Festival [4 to 9 September].

SOURCE:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8755.html

Source:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1410dc2c-f383-11e1-b3a2-00144feabdc0.html

I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to CPU inner workings, so how do you guys think this will affect the x86 market?

Why do you have to register to that site just to view the site?

Yeah screw that crap, I'm not doing it.

Weird when i opened the article it didn't ask me to register. Anyways, i'll copy here the content

Edit: Screw that, here you go, the real source:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8755.html

So... read the article...

You know that scene in Battlestar Galactica where she shoves the optic fibre cable into her arm? Well... in the near future we'll be able to do that and update our google UI on our raybans.

Even if it comes to fruition, I predict that it will affect the x86 market very little. Quantum computing is over-hyped. While it does have many potential legitimate applications, it is NOT a replacement for conventional CPUs, and the "state of the art" for quantum computing is still quite primitive.

Just to give you an idea, these days it is still considered noteworthy that a quantum computer is able to correctly factor the number 15... 48% of the time.

What it could potentially affect are things like cryptography, DNA sequencing, and other algorithms where being able to simultaneously search through a large universe of possibilities is highly advantageous. Your desktop/laptop/smartphone will still have a traditional processor (most likely x86 or ARM) running the show.

just brew it! wrote:

Even if it comes to fruition, I predict that it will affect the x86 market very little. Quantum computing is over-hyped... Your desktop/laptop/smartphone will still have a traditional processor (most likely x86 or ARM) running the show.

2 things, first assuming quantum computing isn't a realistic architecture, the likelihood that arm/x86 lasts another 25 years is fairly low.

Next, think about what a traditional computer was 25 years ago. Technology seems to take on a life of its own. If its viable at all, it will become popular and we will either see it integrated into the CPU/ GPU/APU/ discrete/ whatever.

Diplomacy42 wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Even if it comes to fruition, I predict that it will affect the x86 market very little. Quantum computing is over-hyped... Your desktop/laptop/smartphone will still have a traditional processor (most likely x86 or ARM) running the show.

2 things, first assuming quantum computing isn't a realistic architecture, the likelihood that arm/x86 lasts another 25 years is fairly low.

Next, think about what a traditional computer was 25 years ago. Technology seems to take on a life of its own. If its viable at all, it will become popular and we will either see it integrated into the CPU/ GPU/APU/ discrete/ whatever.

Well yeah... it's anybody's guess what the landscape will look like 25 years from now. I made the (perhaps incorrect) assumption that the OP had a shorter time frame than that in mind, like say 5 (or maybe 10 at the outside) years. While I would not be *completely* surprised to see x86 fall out of favor over that time period, I don't think quantum computing will replace it. If anything, ARM will become dominant across the board.

Even if quantum computing becomes viable, IMO quantum chips will be used in more of a co-processor sort of arrangement with a traditional CPU. Kind of like how FPUs were back in the 1990s, or how GPUs still (mostly) are.

Keeping in mind that it took a good long while for x86 to really be rooted on the desktop, just as an example, I agree with JBI that quantum computing won't outright replace any logic.

Adoption will still be market driven, so I expect those industries (as they no doubt already are) to push for this technology, as there really isn't anything like it. No CPU is well designed for dealing with super-large data sets.