• Question: Is there a limit to computing power?

    Asked by anon-239888 to Struan, Charlotte, Isabel, Douglas, David on 9 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Isabel Cooley

      Isabel Cooley answered on 9 Mar 2020:

      Yes, there’s definitely a limit to computing power.

      It has a big impact on my work because I need to make computers do a lot of calculations to work out how different molecules would behave in real life. I’m limited by the amount of calculations the computer can do in a reasonable time. Some of my calculations can take days even using a cluster of lots of computers working together, and even then we can only predict things over a very short time. However computers are always getting better, faster and more efficient as people that make them push these limits!

    • Photo: David Threlfall

      David Threlfall answered on 9 Mar 2020:

      Yes, there is a limit – but we may be able to make different types of computer that work in different ways to release more speed, such as parallel or quantum computing.

    • Photo: Struan Simpson

      Struan Simpson answered on 9 Mar 2020:

      Just to add onto the other comments, these limits are why scientists like me are so interested in helping to create new computing technologies like quantum computers. We don’t know yet if quantum computers themselves have limits to their computing power though, but hopefully once we start reaching that limit we’ll be able to come up with something new to get around it.

    • Photo: Douglas Bray

      Douglas Bray answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      Yes there is a limit to computing power. But thanks to improving technology and new areas of research (like quantum computers) mean that computing power is increasing.

Comments