CW: CISSP certification gets tougher

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

(ISC)² has announced changes in the professional experience and endorsement requirements for its Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.

Effective 1 October 2007, the minimum work experience required for certification will be raised from four to five years in two or more of the 10 recognised CISSP topics. Candidates with applicable tertiary qualifications will be required to have four years of work experience, instead of the three years currently required.

Also to be introduced in October is the requirement for each CISSP candidate to be officially endorsed by a (ISC)²-certified professional in good standing. The new requirement abolishes current concessions that allow candidates to be endorsed by their own organizations if no official endorsement can be obtained.

Changes to the CISSP requirements come as a reflection on demands of the information security industry, according to Randy Sanovic, who holds both CISSP-ISSAP and ISSMP certifications, and chairs (ISC)²'s Board of Directors.

"With the increasingly complex demands information security professionals face today, the board decided that additional measures of experience and peer endorsement will ensure that a CISSP has a thorough understanding of how to implement an effective information security program," Sanovic said.

"Additional measures of experience and peer endorsement ensure a CISSP has a complete understanding of how to implement an effective information security program and manage information security risks and the ethical commitment to make the right choices along the way," he said.

While candidates who have already registered to take the CISSP test before the October 1 deadline will not be affected by the new requirements, Sanovic expects some leniency to be granted also to candidates taking the exam before the end of the year.

On average, 1100 professionals apply each month for the CISSP exam worldwide. With an estimated 1.5 million people working in information security globally, the 50,000 plus CISSPs must remain an elite group of professionals that are leading this industry, Sanovic said.

"Those candidates who have already signed up to take the CISSP test to be held after Oct. 1, 2007 will be 'grandfathered' into the old requirements, provided they take the exam by Dec. 31, 2007," he said. "We've received very positive feedback thus far from our members," he said. "I believe that most CISSPs view these new requirements as a strength for the benefit of the certified community, and the profession at large."

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LW: Software pirate extradition a first of many, legal expert predicts

As a journalist at LinuxWorld Australia:

It took three years of legal debate before Hew Raymond Griffiths, an Australian resident and British citizen, was surrendered to the U.S. for his involvement in the international software piracy group Drink or Die (DoD).

Griffiths was extradited on February 20 this year, and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, and one count of criminal copyright infringement, before the Virginian District Court on April 20. Potentially facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in an American prison and a $US500,000 fine, he now awaits sentencing on June 22.

To unravel the implications of Griffiths' extradition for Australian content users and owners, Liz Tay enlisted the legal expertise of Nick Abrahams, a corporate and commercial lawyer of international law firm, Deacons, and president of the Communications and Media Law Association in Australia.

What do you think is most significant about the Hew Griffiths case?

To my knowledge this is the first case of IP [intellectual property] theft resulting in an extradition.

It really shows that you can't hide from IP prosecution, and I think it's been a wake-up call to internet users, because often there's a belief that if you place your servers in a particular jurisdiction that has very little regulation and IP protection and so forth, then somehow that will shield you from liability and you can then go on to live somewhere else.

I think what the Hew Griffiths case shows is that you do need to be very aware that particularly in the U.S., where the number one export is intellectual property, they are incredibly vigilant, and this has been a very significant coup for them and I see this as the start of more international prosecution for cyber-related crime.

How was the extradition made possible?

We had the free trade agreement with the U.S. a few years ago, which was great for Australia in a number of respects, and it also had with it a significant obligation on Australia to change its copyright laws to give more protection to copyright owners.

What that means is now there's a lot more criminality, or criminal statute, covering intellectual property from copyright theft, which we didn't have before. That's important because we're now a bit more harmonised with the U.S.

Does the Free Trade Agreement mean that we will be seeing more Australians being extradited to the U.S. on IP charges?

We now have a lot more criminal penalty for IP theft as a result of the Free Trade Agreement, so the potential for this to be used more broadly is certainly there.

How does extradition work?

It's basically a part of international law. In Australia, in order for the Australian government to extradite someone to another country in relation to a crime, then the Australian government is only allowed to do that if the crime that's alleged in another country is actually a crime in Australia as well.

Take something like murder. Quite clearly, murder is a crime in America, and murder is a crime in Australia. So if the U.S. government says, 'there's someone who we allege murdered someone', then there would be the required dual criminality, because murder is a crime in both countries.

For the purpose of extradition, what is critical is being able to establish this concept of dual criminality. That means that what the alleged perpetrator has done in Australia, the U.S. is alleging that is a crime in the U.S. In order for Australia to extradite him, there has to be a similar crime in Australia.

I guess the clearest way to exemplify that is with the 'I Love You" virus that was around a few years ago. The guy who created that virus was based in the Philippines and the U.S. tried to extradite him, but couldn't, because in the Philippines, they didn't have a statute that made the creation of viruses a criminal act, so consequently he was not able to be extradited.

This dual criminality thing is an important issue; now in Australia, we have quite a lot of IP-related thefts and actions are subject for criminal penalties, so consequently, it's a lot easier for other countries like the U.S. to come to Australia and request extradition.

Does the dual criminality requirement mean that IP thieves are safe from prosecution in certain countries?

It's really a distinction between the jurisdiction where the offence originated, and the jurisdiction where the crime took place.

In the Hew Griffiths case, the U.S. said the crime actually occurred in the U.S. because it was U.S. companies that had their copyright stolen. So the fact that Hew Griffiths was sitting with his computer on the Central Coast of Australia was not relevant to them.

The U.S. is where the crime takes effect, and that was the way he was charged. It's important also to recognize that what he did was actually contrary to Australian copyright law.

If Hew Griffiths was living in the Philippines for example, the question would be: do the Filipino laws say that what he was doing was a crime? If there is a criminal statute in relation to that, there would be the required dual criminality for the crime, in the Philippines and the U.S., so the Filipino government would hand him over.

However, if it is not a crime to do what he has done, say with the "I Love You" virus, where the statute had not caught up with the technology, the "I Love You" guy was not extradited. It all depends on what is the extent of criminality for IP theft in each relevant country. And most developed countries are now heading towards having

What does the Hew Griffiths case mean for copyright owners?

I think this case is extraordinary, and is a wake up call to copyright pirates, and I think it has certainly been welcomed by the major copyright owners, particularly software companies and the entertainment industry.

I think the American government is delighted by what's happened, and it should definitely cause people in Australia who are engaged in pirating to really reconsider, because it does mean that you won't pay though the Australian criminal justice system; you'll pay through the American criminal justice system.

Are there any other issues that still stand for content owners?

I think content owners and copyright owners are relatively happy with where the Australia copyright law has gone. There were recent reforms to it and those reforms sought to strengthen the rights of copyright holders and also to recognize that there are now some different technologies which challenge the old copyright laws.

So we had things like the iPod amendment, which basically allowed people to use iPods, whereas previously to the amendment, the use to iPod was an infringement.

With the constant march of content-copying technology, do you think the model of content ownership is realistic?

There is certainly a movement out there that is suggesting that copyright is outdated and there needs to be a fundamental change of thinking on that. [But] I think it's going to be a very long time before we see such a change, if at all.

I get back to the idea that America's number one export is intellectual property, so there's a massive amount of money at stake, and [a lot of] investment in the current copyright regime.

Simply because technology allows people to copy a lot more easily does not necessarily mean that they should be allowed to do that. So while the ease of copying has become much greater, the business model around the ownership of copyright is so well entrenched, and there's so much money involved, that it's hard to imagine how you move to a different environment.

Are we likely to see any changes to current copyright regulations in the future?

What you'll end up seeing, I think, is a lot more flexibility around the current business model. YouTube is a good example of that, I think. YouTube had a lot of material up there that was other people's intellectual property, most notably music and also TV and film material. Basically YouTube has become very successful and done a couple of deals with major copyright owners which allows YouTube to use their material.

So I think the underlying legal structure of copyright is here to stay, but what you'll see is a movement away from the traditional approaches of copyright licensing and so forth. It's a move away from the traditional 'pay for a whole CD' idea, and more to what's happening to YouTube, where users are actually able to use the material, and YouTube ends up paying a royalty to the music company.

Would extradition have worked in reverse? Say, if a U.S. software pirate had stolen Australian intellectual property, would the pirate have been extradited and sentenced here?

I'm not an expert on U.S. extradition law, but certainly the dual criminality is there, so I suspect that it is likely. Because there is that dual criminality, then fundamentally it seems like that could work in the reverse.

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CW: Gardens Point Ruby.NET releases new Beta

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Plans to create a true .NET compiler for Ruby source code are well underway, with developers in Queensland last week announcing the release of version 0.7 of the Gardens Point Ruby.NET software.

Along with added support for debugging, the new Beta boasts a Visual Studio integration package that allows users to edit, build, execute and debug Ruby programs within Visual Studio 2005.

A project of Wayne Kelly, from the Queensland University of Technology, the compiler has been developed with the aim of converting Ruby source code into Microsoft's Common Intermediate Language (CIL) for execution on Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0 platform.

While initial plans centred on the entire Ruby language, Kelly said recent debates surrounding a number of Ruby features have given the developers cause to reconsider.

"We originally planned to implement the whole Ruby language," Kelly said. "The only major features that we have not implemented are Threads and Continuations. There is currently some debate regarding whether these features will remain in future versions of the Ruby language so we are holding off implementation until that picture becomes clearer."

Although the developers had previously announced plans to perform monthly public releases, Version 0.7 comes three months after its predecessor in February. Kelly pinned the delay on a decision made in March, to hold off the next release until Ruby.NET could be integrated into Visual Studio, which is thought to have a vital role in the compiler's new debugging capabilities.

There have already been 2,500 downloads of Version 0.7 since it was released on May 8. So far, response from the testing community has been very positive, Kelly reports.

The next version of the software is planned to be released in July and is expected to feature performance optimizations and support for interoperability with other .NET languages such as C#.

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CW: Enterprises join third party developers at Microsoft's DevCon

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Developers were ushered into Microsoft's mobile world as the software vendor ramped up its enterprise focus at the Microsoft Mobile and Embedded DevCon 2007 (MEDC) in Sydney this week.

Held annually for Australian and New Zealand developers, device manufacturers and consumers of Microsoft's mobile software and embedded platforms, MEDC this year featured a new stream, "Windows Mobile Devices in Today's Enterprise", in addition to its mobile and embedded development streams.

Presentations in the new stream were conducted by representatives of Microsoft, as well as its independent software vendor (ISV) partners, and aimed at educating enterprise users on horizontal applications of mobile technologies in the enterprise, such as purchase order approvals, leave forms, and Salesforce information.

"We've always worked very well with the ISVs, and now we've decided to pull in the enterprise stream," said Rick Anderson, enterprise mobility solution specialist at Microsoft in Australia.

While the vendor's recognition of enterprise developers is expected to better equip in-house developers in deploying and integrating Microsoft's mobile applications in their organizations, Anderson foresees a growing opportunity for third party developers.

Michele Freed, general manager of Microsoft's mobile information worker product group agreed.

"Most software that is written everywhere in the world is not written by vendors like Microsoft; it's written by third party developers and enterprises themselves," Freed said.

"These people [ISVs] are considered a key part of our product team. We take their feedback very seriously," she said.

According to Anderson, Microsoft enjoys a close two-way relationship with its partners and supports ISVs through constant communication, sales leads, product previews, and networking opportunities with the vendor and other partners.

In addition to its three-tier hierarchy of registered, certified and gold-certified ISVs, Microsoft also invites expert partners into an elite Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program.

True to its reputation as a capitalist proprietor, however, entrance into the upper tiers of Microsoft's partner program comes with a fee. Certified and gold-certified ISVs pay $3150 annually, in addition to costs of required certifications and event participation fees.

It is precisely Microsoft's unabashed approach to business that endears it to MVP James McCutcheon, who is Chief Software Architect of Sydney-based j3 Technology. McCutcheon made no secret of the partners' common goal: "to make money together".

Recruited as an ISV about three years ago for his expertise in mobile operating system Symbian, McCutcheon said Microsoft has since overtaken Palm and Nokia to dominate about 95 percent of j3's product offerings.

"It's important to have a partner behind you," he said.

"It's given me a direct connection to Microsoft and direct corroboration in marketing campaigns," he said. "It's an easy sell for me, and my IDE is the best of breed."

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GGG: Plantronics Audio 450

As a reviewer at Good Gear Guide:

Bespectacled users rejoice: here is a compact, sturdy design that bypasses the annoyance of over-the-ear clips. Designed for notebook users wanting the convenience of a lightweight multimedia headset, the Plantronics Audio 450 delivers average sound quality with style.

The Audio 450 features what Plantronics calls a "Flex Grip" design, where the earbuds are mounted on a rubber clip that fits around the bottom of the ear, and moulds itself to the ear lobe. A microphone is attached to the left earpiece via a 180 degree swivel boom. This allows the microphone to be tucked conveniently under and away when not in use.

Each earpiece is surprisingly light, but while the grip feels comfortable and secure even after long periods of use, it does take a little getting used to. The lobe-hugging design could also be problematic for users who wear earrings, as it doesn't leave much room for jewellery.

Sound is delivered in clear stereo, and the sealed backs of the earbuds cut out background noise effectively. As is the case with many earbud designs though, frequencies at the upper and lower ends of the spectrum are slightly dampened, producing somewhat of a muted effect. This may encourage users to use the headset at damagingly high volumes.A thumb-sized, in-line remote houses both volume dial and a switch to mute the microphone. This provides good control over output audio, and the noise-cancelling microphone mutes cleanly.

The headset connects to an input/output device via a standard 3.5mm analog jack plug, which is handy, as this means it can be plugged into most audio devices. The 1.9 metre cable length should be sufficient for notebook users, but it might pose a problem for PC users with computers tucked far away under a desk.

All in all, Plantronics' Audio 450 is a decent portable headset for notebooks, and the asking price is competitive. However, users who aren't constrained by space may prefer to spend more money on larger headsets that will better reproduce the entire spectrum of frequencies.

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ARN: Mobile phone Paymentz comes of age

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Application service provider, Paymentz, has kicked-off discussions with local phone resellers, banks and telecommunications companies to on-sell its mobile commerce technology.

Paymentz founder and managing director, Rob Manson, claimed m-commerce was a budding market he expected to come of age. He cited the support shown by major credit card companies, such as Visa and Mastercard, as a catalyst for growth.

"We recently completed a commercial launch at [electronics tradeshow] CeBIT and the response was absolutely overwhelming," he said. "Although m-commerce is still a fledgling concept in this country, especially after its false dawn during the dotcom boom, this level of interest in our product tells me that the market is ready to embrace m-commerce again."

Paymentz complements existing credit card services by enabling merchants to process payments using a mobile phone. The "network agnostic" application is expected to benefit small to medium enterprises and tradespeople, who can use it to process payments from any location with mobile coverage.

The company currently is promoting 3's X-series phones, which Manson said support high-speed Internet connections that best suit the service. The company is also in discussions with other phone resellers including Optus. Manson said response so far had been very positive.

Transactions operate over a 256bit SSL connection. The Paymentz application sends information securely and directly to the bank. Manson said there is also potential for the service to be provided through partner websites. Discussions are currently underway for it to be included on 3's Web portal.

"At the moment, we're 100 per cent focused on direct sales, but that's just while we're in discussion with our partners. We really would like to see 80 per cent or more come through a channel," he said. "We've had a lot of interest from Web developers and computer support people. We're also really looking at banks, because from a customer's point of view, this is really a financial services product and their trust relationship is with the banks."

Besides commissions of up to 75 per cent on sales, Manson said resellers stand to receive affiliate revenue for each paid subscriber to the Paymentz service; a share in ongoing subscription and transaction fees for co-branded services; as well as telco commissions and revenue for phone sales.

While he declined to put a dollar value on the potentials of m-commerce, Manson cited surveys from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Reserve Bank of Australia which reported 18 million credit cards had been issued in Australia, collectively producing 100 million transactions per month.

About one billion mobile phones were sold last year, and three million people are expected to upgrade to new 3G devices this year. Already, one in three companies is using mobile data in its business, Manson said.

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ARN: Arasor readies high speed wireless technology, awaits telco uptake

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Australia may fall in the first-world category, but outside its major cities, there still exists a need for broadband infrastructure that is not dissimilar to the needs of developing nations China and India, according to Larry Marshall, managing director of Arasor in Australia.

"The environment [in China and India] is very similar to rural Australia, where we don't have a lot of infrastructure," he said.

According to Marshall the technological disparity between metropolitan and rural areas has made for an "interesting dynamic" in the Australian telecommunications space.

Based in Silicon Valley, U.S., and with operations in China, Japan and India, the hi-tech optical chip developer and manufacturer has this week announced the acquisition of Sydney-based photonics research facility, the Bandwidth Foundry (BWF). The purchase marks Arasor's first major play in the local market since its October 2006 listing in the ASX.

Currently, Arasor is partnered with telecommunications providers China Netcom in China and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in India to provide speeds of up to 50Mbps via a wireless extension to optical fibre infrastructure. In Australia, however, Marshall noted more of a reluctance to adopt the new wireless technology in favour of existing copper networks.

"The issue is, for someone to deploy our kind of technology in existing infrastructure, they've got to make a decision not to use existing legacy copper network anymore," he said. "That's a big decision for a carrier to make, and I wouldn't criticize Australian carriers at all for having trouble with that."

In most parts of Australia, Marshall expects Arasor's technology to remain on the backbenches until Telstra is able to deploy its long-awaited Fibre to the Node (FTTN) network. If deployed, FTTN will be good news for Arasor's wireless products, which simply work as a plug-in to augment the optical fibre infrastructure.

"I think because Telstra has made the decision to [consider] FTTN, they are going to spend a lot of money on that, and are then going to have this big sunk cost that they're going to have to leverage, so they won't want to do this kind of wireless for a couple of years," he said.

"From our standpoint, that's not competitive at all; it means we will simply plug in our wireless equipment, and just leverage that presence, so it's actually a good thing, it just means that it will take probably a couple of years before Telstra gets around to getting serious about very high speed wireless access."

In the meantime, Arasor's offerings could appeal to smaller service providers looking to provide wireless Internet access in rural areas, Marshall said, as the product enables a network to be easily extended, which in turn facilitates a pay-as-you-grow model for start-up ISPs.

Providers of other services outside of the traditional telecommunications sphere may also consider expanding their offerings through the wireless product, Marshall said, citing the example of the Shanghai Media Group, which has established a wireless IPTV network in China.

"An interesting thing we're seeing all around the world at the moment is that the lines between telecom carriers, content providers and people like Google are really getting blurred," he said.

"It's possible that some of the TV carriers may look at deploying this kind of technology because they've already got their broadcast infrastructure in place, and it's not really a change for them; it's kind of an extension of an existing service," he said. "They might be a better point of entry than a traditional carrier."

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CW: BigPond enters new waters through Second life

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Not to be left behind in the recent corporate uptake of Second Life, BigPond has launched a group of 11 in-game islands, and is now offering its users un-metered access to content in its virtual headquarters, as well as selected Linden Lab downloads.

Dubbed "The Pond", BigPond claims it to be Australia's first major corporate presence in the online virtual world. The cluster of islands is estimated to cost in excess of $20,000 in real estate alone, according to fixed island prices currently listed by Linden Lab.

Jason Romney, BigPond's national manager of commercial strategy, called the virtual expansion a strategic experiment that is expected to enhance the ISP's brand, while providing potentially valuable experience in community and content management in the virtual space.

"Second Life is relevant to us because it represents the intersection of some key media trends, for example, user-generated content, the creation of communities, the strong growth of games, and so forth," he said.

"We see this as something we should experiment in ... and there's a good fit with our real-world media activities, because we can both bring those [real-world] things into the virtual world, and we can take things from the virtual world out to those [real-world] activities."

While he did not think it possible to put a dollar-value on the business potential of virtual worlds, Romney expects Second Life to offer opportunities in distributing content, liasing with customers, conducting meetings among a globally located workforce, and trialing prototype products.

On the other hand, the as-yet unpolished nature of Linden Lab's metaverse has given rise to issues from virtual terrorism, to recruiting suitable developers, to negotiating licenses for audio and video content.

Owing to its status as an incumbent Australian ISP, BigPond is meticulous in obtaining licenses for all content and trademarks appearing on its islands - and the licensing process can be tedious.

"This is a wild west without any inhibitors or fetters - unless your virtual presence has an effect on your reputation in the real world," Romney explained. "Unlike other places that stream pirated music, we have to obtain licences for all music, which takes ages because we have to negotiate with content owners and explain what a virtual world is."

Similarly, initial negotiations with executives to enter into the virtual world proved to be a challenge, Romney recalled.

"It was a challenge to explain the nature of virtual worlds, because clearly we're talking about something that is on the cutting edge of innovation and something which perhaps for people who weren't brought up on games, is more of a stretch to understand," he said. "But the proof is in the pudding."

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CW: Brickies, plumbers catching up to IT's salary rates, warns APESMA

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

A narrowing salary gap between professionals and blue-collar workers could be deterring young people from higher education, warns the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA), which on Friday called on the Australian Fair Pay Commission to conduct an urgent review of professional salary rates.

Highlighting what he said was a significant erosion of professional rates of pay, APESMA chief executive John Vines said increases in the minimum wages of technology-based professionals were long overdue.

"The safety net, or minimum rates of pay for professionals, has lost relativity to the minimum rates paid to other workers over the last 15 years," he said.

"We believe it's time that there was a review of professional rates to insure the rates contained in those awards reflect the marketplace to a better degree than they currently do, and in particular to ensure the relativity between professionals and blue-collar workers are restored."

Since the last review of rates paid to technology-based professionals was conducted by the Industrial Relations Commission more than 15 years ago, minimum wages for IT workers across the board have been increased in flat-dollar amounts.

The most recent changes made to national award rates saw a $27 increase for IT professionals and tradespeople alike.

"15 years ago, the rate of pay for a level 3 professional was set at 220 percent of the tradesman's rate. As a result of the decline in relativity, that's now dropped to 174 percent," Vines explained.

Today's salary benchmarks are a poor reflection of the increasing responsibilities faced by high-level IT staff, Vines said.

"Professionals are having to take a more individual responsibility for the work that they do, the way in which they perform their work, and their professional development, and we think that should be recognised in the remuneration that is available to them," he said.

"The rates in the awards have not reflected that increase in responsibility, and have, in fact, gone the other way."

Minimum rates of pay are far from an indication of average salaries, which in recent times have been said to be increasing due to a shortage of IT workers in Australia. While the award rate for IT professionals is currently set at around $35,000, APESMA estimates the average starting salary to be in the ballpark of $43,000.

However, improvements in the award rate are likely to affect workers currently receiving base pay, who are estimated to make up a significant portion - about 10 percent - of professionals in the IT industry.

Furthermore, Vines warned that the narrowing wage structure could be turning potential IT workers away from tertiary education if they perceive little benefit in a professional career.

"If it's not addressed, then I think it's going to deter young people from taking on professional careers, because they'll look at them and say, 'Okay I'll have to do four years of university, and when I come out of it, I won't be paid much more than somebody who doesn't have to go through all that study'," he said.

"It is critical that during a time of major skills shortages in Australia that the value of professional salaries is restored to at least its previous level or ideally, improved."

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LW: One quantum problem solved; many more to go

As a journalist at LinuxWorld Australia:

Researchers in Japan have developed new circuit technology touted to be the vital next step towards the realisation of a practical quantum computer.

A collaborative effort between Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), and electronics vendor NEC Corporation, the technology is said to be the world's first quantum bit (qubit) circuit that can control the strength of coupling between qubits.

Current electronics rely on the manipulation of binary bits between two states - on and off, or one and zero - to store information. In quantum computing, information is stored in qubits, which can exist in a much larger range of states.

While previous advances have been made in establishing qubits and quantum logic gates, the coupling of qubits so far has been difficult to control.

"It has hitherto been difficult to switch the movement of one bit and two bits in the same quantum bit, although the bit's movements in the state of one single bit and the coupling of two bits have been confirmed," explained researcher Jaw-Shen Tsai of NEC.

The new technology enables the coupling of qubits to be controlled by employing an additional qubit in between the coupled qubit pair. The additional qubit acts as a non-linear transformer that is able to turn on and off the magnetic coupling between the two coupled qubits.

Using the new scheme, researchers have successfully employed a coupled two-qubit system to carry out a multi-quantum control experiment involving the turning on and off of the coupling.

Quantum computing is expected to be a vast improvement on today's most modern supercomputers due to its potentials of performing functions exponentially faster than any classical computer.

Having been employed at NEC for the past 24 years, Tsai anticipates quantum computing to continue to have a significant role in NEC's research and development efforts.

"NEC has been supporting this project for the past 10 years," he said. "One of the main businesses of NEC's is information processing, so naturally I would think the top management would support such a revolution of information processing, and I'm not surprised that they are supporting this project."

But there is still a long way to go before quantum computing becomes a reality, Tsai said. With ongoing improvements in conventional computers and their applications, Tsai expects the development of a practical quantum computer to be more than ten years away.

Meanwhile, the researchers are making plans for more complicated quantum computation that involve more computation steps and more qubits, in order to create a more realistic system and keep abreast of competition from other laboratories in the U.S. and Europe.

"In this particular technology, we have achieved a lot in the past. But many other labs are developing fast, so competition is there and we hope we can keep producing things, like what we have just disclosed, in the future," Tsai said.

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