Russia showed Putin the most powerful quantum computer in the country

Russia has demonstrated a new quantum computer, which, according to scientists, is the most powerful in the country. President Vladimir Putin personally got acquainted with this development at the exhibition of quantum technologies in Moscow. However, experts believe that the Russian system does not yet pose a threat to Western interests in cryptography.

The quantum computer was created on the basis of the International Center for Quantum Optics and Quantum Technologies with the participation of the state corporation Rosatom. The system works on the principle of trapped ions and has a capacity of 16 qubits. In comparison, IBM, Dwave and other foreign companies produce quantum computers with hundreds of qubits.

At the presentation, an algorithm for calculating a simple molecule was launched and its work was shown in real time. “Our quantum computer, importantly, is already doing useful things – modeling molecules, and not doing scientific abstraction,” – wrote Ilya Semerikov, Director of the International Center for Quantum Optics and Quantum Technologies.

Quantum computers are a technology that scientists hope will be able to accelerate many computationally complex tasks in the future – including drug discovery, materials science, traffic optimization, logistics, weather forecasting and, of course, cryptography.

However, quantum computers are still at an early stage of development and are far from being able to crack modern encryption. Estimated researchers from Fujitsu, in order to crack RSA, one would need a quantum computer with at least 10,000 qubits and 2.23 trillion quantum gates. And even then, according to some experts, anyone who tries to do this will have to sift through a mountain of garbage to find a pearl.

Also, it is hard to break RSA because there is no mathematical proof that factorization of N (modulo RSA) is a necessary condition for deciphering a message. We do not know of any efficient method for solving this problem without knowing the prime factors N; and we do not know of any efficient method for finding these factors from N. Therefore, knowing N (the public key) does not allow us to decrypt the message; this is the essence of the public key – it can be disclosed, making it impossible to decrypt the message.

Within the framework of the exhibition, Rosatom also presented its developments in the field of industrial software (software), including a life cycle management system (PLM) and a platform for combining mathematical modeling products (SAE). These products are fully import-substituted and are able to compete with world leaders in terms of functionality.