CPU discussion post-DConf

[Mithun Hunsur via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 6 May 2016 at 23:46:56 UTC, Anon wrote:
> On Friday, 6 May 2016 at 20:32:59 UTC, Assi Zanafi wrote:
>> Quantum CPU before x86_128 ? what do you think ?
>> I really think that x86_64 is the last "classic architecture". 
>> Intel will never make x86 with 128 bits addresses. Qbytes will 
>> raise before.
>
> I don't know which will come first, but QPUs will not obsolete 
> CPUs and GPUs. QPUs are not just faster CPUs. In a very similar 
> manner to how GPUs are better than CPUs for some (but not all) 
> tasks, QPUs will be better for a number of problems, but many 
> algorithms will not see any benefit from use of a QPU. Future 
> computers will have a CPU, GPU, and QPU, each used in tandem 
> for the things each is good at.

My understanding of QPUs agrees with this - they're a 
fundamentally different usage model, and using them as the 
primary processor in a system is infeasible (right now) at 
present.