P-computers can solve spin-glass problems faster than quantum systems
14 comments
·December 7, 2025simonerlic
v8xi
Just remains to be seen whether they can maintain capitalization long enough to find PMF
gaze
The communication here is clear as mud. WHICH quantum systems? D-Wave? We know D-Wave is a joke!
m_dupont
Very interesting article.
This makes me wonder: Would it be possible to implement an equivalent to Shor's algorithm on a p-computer. Maybe the quantumness isn't necessary at all
marzchipane
That's a cool thought! For those who may not know, Shor's algorithm is fundamentally quantum because it relies on the interference of probability amplitudes, which can be both positive and negative. It could not be directly implemented on a p-computer because you could only simulate this interference, which removes the exponential advantage.
It's possible that an entirely different approach is made possible by p-computers, but this would be tricky to find. Furthermore, it seems that the main advantage of p-computers is sampling from a Boltzmann-like distribution, and I'm not aware that this is the bottleneck in any known factorisation algorithm.
supernetworks
A direct equivalent, no, as stated in the introduction.
"Notably, while probabilistic computers can emulate quantum interference with polynomial resources, their convergence is in general believed to require exponential time [10]. This challenge is known as the signproblem in Monte Carlo algorithms [11]."
aleph_minus_one
> A direct equivalent, no, as stated in the introduction
MontyCarloHall
I doubt it. Shor's algorithm relies on the quantum Fourier transform, which requires the complex phase information encoded in the quantum wavefunctions. The quantum probability norm (L2) accounts for interference between the complex amplitudes of these wavefunctions; the classical L1 probability norm does not.
inasio
The paper compares p-computers with D-Wave's quantum annealing machine, which is limited to only solving certain problems (as opposed to universal QC such as Google or IonQ's, that could in theory implement Shor's)
mrbluecoat
> We used millions of p-bits
I'm not sure how this compares to quantum with its dozens to hundreds of qubits
cubefox
I'm confused. Do p-computers have any complexity theoretic advantage over classical computers, similar to how quantum computers have such an advantage in some areas? Or are they just normal computers in the end?
DonHopkins
P-computers is just another name for legume-computers, which are great for bean-counting, and are deployed in pods.
xevrem
Just wait till I release my probabilistic perceptron comptuer! Then I can use my PP-bits to achieve twice the laughs in half the time!
ThouYS
P is stored in the computer
Good sign that Extropic may be on the right path here