Computers, as we know them today, store and process information using what is known as "bits", which hold values of either zero or one.
A quantum computer processes bits that can exist as both a one and a zero simultaneously - they're called qubits.
Professor Andrew White is the Director of the Centre of Engineered Quantum Systems at the University of Queensland.
He says it’s this phenomenon - of existing in multiple states at the same time – that is key to the technology.
