| | |  | | Home » Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | The multidisciplinary field of quantum computing strives to exploit some of the uncanny aspects of quantum mechanics to expand our computational horizons. Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists takes readers on a tour of this fascinating area of cutting-edge research. Written in an accessible yet rigorous fashion, this book employs ideas and techniques familiar to every student of computer science. The reader is not expected to have any advanced mathematics or physics background. After presenting the necessary prerequisites, the material is organized to look at different aspects of quantum computing from the specific standpoint of computer science. There are chapters on computer architecture, algorithms, programming languages, theoretical computer science, cryptography, information theory, and hardware. The text has step-by-step examples, more than two hundred exercises with solutions, and programming drills that bring the ideas of quantum computing alive for today's computer science students and researchers. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Noson S. Yanofsky | | Hardcover:
| 368 pages | | Publisher:
| Cambridge University Press | | Publication Date:
| August 11, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0521879965 | | Product Width:
| 177.5 centimeters | | Product Height:
| 250.0 centimeters | | Product Weight:
| 1.85 pounds | | Package Length:
| 10.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.9 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 9 reviews |
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12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
This is amazing introductory book!Oct 18, 2008
By Jun Won Lee
"p3man2"
I am studying quantum computing by myself.
Before this book, I studied this field with other school's class website.
Even though the slide and on-line documents I obtained is great, it was hard to understand by just reading!
This book is totally different from other books. It focued on people who are weak to mathematics and have little knowledge of quantum computing.
Even some chapters are still hard (because of the nature of this field), most chapters are so well written that you can read lying on the couch and feel like you read some kind of story.
Since I have been in the technical field for a while,(I am a CS PhD student studying Data Mining and Machine Learning), this book is one of very rarely well written books containing sufficient depth but keeping simplicity.
For anyone who wish to start to study Quantum Computing WITHOUT much pain, this is THE book.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Excellent introduction to Quantum ComputingFeb 19, 2009
By Karl
Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists is a great introduction to this new field. (I have a computer degree and work in computers.) I like learning about new hot technologies and what they're all about. I picked this book up on a whim and really loved it.
First, it is a relatively easy read. One does not need to know any physics or higher math. I never studied linear algebra in college (but I saw a lot of it working with graphics) this book does not assume it. I remember high school physics and I did not need more than that to read this book. Everything is clearly laid out and explained. (But remember, it is definitely NOT a popular book. It is a technical book with problems and lots of equations. It does however explain very carefully where the technical details come from.)
Throughout the text there are lots of examples that explain things. This is not a theoretical book. There are also a lot of little programming assignments that one can do (if you have the time and are in the mood) to get a feel for how this is done. This book is definitely made for a computer person. I looked at a few other books on this subject before and could not make any headway. This book flows.
Along the way you learn basic quantum mechanics and some of the fun and strange things about that subject that everyone is always talking about. The book shows that the concepts are not very hard.
Almost every chapter is has a title that refers to some part of computer science. Each chapter has a little review of the some of the main aspects in classical computer science, and then moves on to the quantum computing version. I think the most enjoyable chapter is chapter 3 "The Leap from Classical to Quantum". This starts off talking about little marbles moving around on a graph and ends up talking about quantum mechanics and the double-slit experiment. Another cool chapter is 5 "Architecture". It shows how all classical gates can be seen as matrices acting on arrays and then shows that quantum gates can also been seen looked at in the same way. (I thought Chapter 7 "Programming Languages" is a little hard to follow.) Chapter 10 "Information Theory" also gets rough after the first few pages. All in all though, the chapters are great. There are also several great appendices that have more info including a history of quantum computing looking at the papers that shaped the field.
I've recommended this book to a few of my friends/coworkers. One already bought it and another looks like he will (unless he keeps mine.) I can not recommend this book in a strong enough language to anyone who knows (and works with) computers and really wants to get a feel for what we suspect the next hot topic is. It will go down as a classic in clarity and readability.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Viewpoint of a self-guided explorer of quantum computingApr 05, 2011
By Arnab Chakraborty
Good points about the book:
1) The authors focus on the "what"'s and "how"'s rather than
the "why"'s. They do not waste time with nitty gritty details
of quantum physics. The book is true to it title, and delves
directly into the practical details of quantum computing. In
this respect this book is a welcome exception among a plethora
of similarly titled book that end up bombarding the readers
with alpha particles and magical photons, and leave the quantum
computing topics only vaguely explained. Just as classical computing
is not about understanding semiconductors, quantum computing is
not about chasing photons. This book makes this very clear.
2) The book moves at a very leisurely pace with LOTS of
embedded examples and exercises. Though I skipped most of the
exercises during my firsr reading, these helped me to
consolidate my understanding during subsequent readings. This book
is ideal for self-guided study.
3) The book goes beyond being a mere nice textbook. It also acts
like a tour operator into the wonderful world of quantum
computing with material suitable for audience ranging from
"casually curious" to potential researchers. A list of possible
student projects, and a guide to the quantum computing on the net
are two very useful sections. I have never seen a single book
providing such a broad yet practically useful view about a
subject. Of course, one cannot expect to learn "everything"
about a subject from a single book, but still this book goes a
long way toward that goal. It gives you some knowledge, and
then it helps you to understand how that piece of
knowledge fits in the vast world of quantum computing.
4) The level of details is chosen mainly for readers with
not-too-well-brushed-up math background. Basic familiarity with
complex matrices, along with definitions of eigen values and
eigen vectors is all the math prerequsite.
All formulas are supported by extensive numerical examples.
Not so good points:
1) The index needs to be expanded. It lacks important entries
like Hadamard, Pauli (there are special matrices by these names),
and if you want to quickly look up the exact definitions of
these matrices, it is somewhat hard to navigate yourself
to the relevant pages. However, after you get acquainted with
the layout of the book it is only a minor problem.
2) Such a book needs to have a simulator to go with it, so that the
reader gets a hands-on feel for the subject. The book does have
a pretty detailed discussion about a free Matlab-based
simulator, but unfortunately the simulator is apparently no
more on the web.
3) As the math level of the exposition is deliberately kept
low, certain important ideas have been only glossed over. The
authors have done a commendable job choosing which details to
omit. But I think there is one important concept that is used
but never explained. The book introduces quantum measurements
as Hermitian matrices (much like any other book). To keep the
exposition at an elementary level only Hermitian matrices with simple eigen
values are discussed. The case of repeated eigen values (which
is not a trivial generalization of the "simple" case) is never
mentioned. But in almost all the actual quantum algorithms
discussed later in the book, the measurement matrices have
repeated eigen values. It would help beginners like me
to have an explanation of the special case of a diagonal measurement
matrix (the type that has been used most often).
This could actually be done without ever talking about
eigen values and eigen vectors. This is the only point where I
had to rely on external resources (mainly wikipedia) to
supplement the book.
Despite the minor shortcomings, the book is one of the BEST books
I have ever seen on ANY subject!!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
DO NOT GET THE KINDLE VERSION!!!Jan 03, 2012
By Prof. RM
I very much like the book, but I made the mistake of buying it for my large-sized Kindle. Kindle can't handle some of the fonts in the equations, so some of them have missing terms. In other cases, characters from the missing fonts were embedded inside the text as raster images. Sometimes a bra appears embedded in the text as a giant image, while the matching ket appears as a normal-sized character.
The underlying problem is that the typesetting for the Kindle is often extremely sloppy. In this case, there is no evidence of proof reading. For example, in lists of subscripted variables embedded in the text, some subscripts are correctly typeset and some appear as conventional characters. That doesn't cause much confusion, but it is a clear sign that the typesetting was never checked. Elements of mathematical expressions that had been dropped in typesetting, either because of typos or incompatible fonts, had not been spotted, and I spent enough time guessing about missing terms that I am now looking for a hardcopy.
These problems can't be explained by the technical limitations of the Kindle. It's just plain sloppy. Given that I paid $44 for the Kindle version, I think we can expect better. I think the authors of the text can expect better, and I hope they complain about it. I've seen similar problems with other Kindle versions of books that have equations. When talking about the Kindle with friends, I cite typesetting of anything but plain text as a significant limitation.
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Addendum 1/22/2012: I now have a hard cover copy and I have studied it thoroughly and enjoyed the book immensely. I have found it to be much more accessible to computer scientists than competing books I have looked at. One of the readers pointed out that it seemed unfair to give my original rating of four stars over a production issue that does not affect the hardcover version. I found out it's possible to revise a review after it's been posted, and I am changing my rating to five stars.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Excellent book!Aug 02, 2010
By Alan Tatourian
Of a dozen books on quantum programming I have read this one is by far the best. Strongly recommend.
Alan Tatourian
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