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The title of this submission does NOT do it justice. This looks rather important to me: researchers at UCSB have apparently built a Quantum computer that successfully executes Shor's Algorithm for factoring numbers into their prime components. So far, they have successfully factored 15 into 3 and 5, but according to the UCSB release, the system can be scaled up to factor arbitrarily larger numbers.

If true, this has major implications for cryptography, because virtually all modern encryption and hashing/signing algorithms in use today are based on the assumption that factoring large numbers into their prime components is computationally very costly.

Does anyone here have the expertise necessary to judge whether these results are as ground-breaking as they look to me?

To conduct the research, Lucero and his colleagues designed and fabricated a quantum processor to map the problem of factoring the number 15 onto a purpose-built superconducting quantum circuit.

-- Is the superconducting element of the circuit - commercially feasible? [serious question]

If such a processor enters the market, traditional encrypting will be forced to change completely. According to Lucero, the quantum processors power can be used for both sides of the process, allowing “quantum cryptography” to replace traditional RSA. Quantum encrypting would be more difficult to crack and far easier to keep secure — Lucero says quantum cryptography systems immediately notify both user and potential intruder when the system has been tampered with. For example, Lucero said a voice conversation over quantum encrypted lines would immediately become “jumbled” when a third party attempted to access the system.
Using a classical computer and the best-known classical algorithm, factoring something like RSA Laboratory's largest published number –– which contains over 600 decimal digits –– would take longer than the age of the universe, he continued.

A quantum computer could reduce this wait time to a few tens of minutes.

-- The synopsis.