  We report on recent developments in the integration of optical
microresonators into atom chips and describe some fabrication and
implementation challenges. We also review theoretical proposals for quantum
computing with single atoms based on the observation of photons leaking through
the cavity mirrors. The use of measurements to generate entanglement can result
in simpler, more robust and scalable quantum computing architectures. Indeed,
we show that quantum computing with atom-cavity systems is feasible even in the
presence of relatively large spontaneous decay rates and finite photon detector
efficiencies.
