Limit on the speed of quantum computation in determining parity

Consider a function f which is defined on the integers from 1 to N and takes the values -1 and +1. The parity of f is the product over all x from 1 to N of f(x). With no further information about f, to classically determine the parity of f requires N calls of the function f. We show that any quantum algorithm capable of determining the parity of f contains at least N/2 applications of the unitary operator which evaluates f. Thus, for this problem, quantum computers cannot outperform classical computers. [S0031-9007(98)07850-8].