HP, MIT designing radical new computers

Hewlett-Packard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are jointly investing a total of $2.5 million to build a computing device based on the peculiar properties of quantum mechanics, the organizations announced Wednesday. Quantum computers, an active area of research at IBM and many research institutions, are years or decades in the future but promise ultrafast speeds based on the lightning-quick activity of the smallest particles.

The work is part of a broader, $25 million research program between HP and MIT. HP is also working with researchers at University of California, Los Angeles, on molecular computers, not quite as remote a possibility as quantum computers.