What is a quantum processor?

Someone brought up a "quantum processor" or "quantum computing" the other day. What is it? How does it differ from the processors we're using?

Solution 1:

In a nutshell: processors right now run on electrons, and so are limited by the speed of light and various other nuances.

Quantum processors take advantage of the properties of subatomic particles (e.g quantum entanglement, or Einstein's "Spooky action at a distance") to overcome some of these limits and offer a potentially exponential increase in power.

In an even smaller nutshell: they're much, much faster.

Solution 2:

First read Introduction to quantum mechanics, and then Quantum mechanics. After that read Quantum computing, QIS, and Quantum Processing unit.