MilestoneHardwareConfirmed
IBM and Stanford run Shor's algorithm on a 7-qubit computer to factor 15
Dec 20, 2001
Researchers at IBM's Almaden lab and Stanford report in Nature the first demonstration of Shor's factoring algorithm, finding that 15 = 3 × 5. Their computer was a liquid of specially made molecules, each using seven atomic nuclei as qubits controlled by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
Why it matters
Shor's algorithm is why large quantum computers could threaten today's encryption. This was a tiny, simplified run, but it showed the algorithm working on real hardware for the first time.
Lieven M. K. Vandersypen · Matthias Steffen · Isaac L. Chuang · IBM · Stanford
Sources (2)
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Nature
Experimental realization of Shor's quantum factoring algorithm using nuclear magnetic resonance
“Here we report an implementation of the simplest instance of Shor's algorithm: factorization of N = 15 (whose prime factors are 3 and 5). We use seven spin-1/2 nuclei in a molecule as quantum bits”
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IBM Quantum Blog
It's been 20 years since "15" was factored on quantum hardware
“Twenty years ago, a team of researchers became the first to demonstrate this algorithm on real quantum hardware, changing the field of quantum computing forever.”
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