Researchers are a long way from creating quantum mainframes, which is how most of them see the future of their fiddly devices, let alone quantum desktops.
And Quantum's desktop drive sales are expected to slide from 24.9 million in 1997 to 23.8 million units in 1997.
These researchers seem not to be disheartened by the many barriers to a desktop quantum computer.
Even so, some of the researchers said they were lured to the field, not by the possibility of a quantum computer on every desktop, but as a gateway to a better understanding of the bizarre world of quantum physics.
Inspection of the maps in a desktop mapping package, Quantum GIS (http://www.qgis.org) showed the expected correspondence of both measures over the whole country.
Such conditions are likely to prevent quantum computing from hitting our desktops or smartphones any time soon, but it shouldn't preclude the use of quantum computing in data centers, where they will gain particular power should Amir Feizpour and Krzysztof Kaczmarek manage to network up the devices successfully and robustly.
Together with Electrolysis, set to roll out to all Firefox desktop users in the coming months, Quantum should improve the stability, security and overall quality of the browsing experience.
"Everybody has a spintronics device on their desktop," said Dr. David D. Awschalom, director of the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Their work has implications for light-based clocks far more precise than the atomic clocks at the heart of the world's business systems, and quantum computing, which may - or may not - revolutionise desktop computing as we know it.
While a U.S. outfit, Quantum Corp., is the world's top vendor of hard disks for desktop PCs, Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries of Takamatsu, Japan manufactures Quantum's entire hard disk lineup.
