What can quantum computers do and how fast are they?

[Spammers]

What is a quantum computer in short ? what does it look like ?
Can it be as fast as a present super computer ?

Another, beside crypto, what can quantum algorithms do ? Can they do something good like genetic algorithms ?

 

[exequor]

Read this info from caltech:
http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~westside/quantum-intro.html

you should get a good understanding of what it's all about

 

[Danger]

Thanks, exequor. That was a good read.

 

[Tony11235]

Can it be as fast as a present super computer ?

Your question should be just the opposite. And the answer is NO.

what does it look like ?

Nothing like what most people have in mind, as far as a computer. Oh and only the most elementary experimental ones that contain around 4 qubits, maybe more, have been produced. As far as I know.

 

[Student_at_CUNY]

It depends on polynomial time.