Quantum Computing Report by GQI - Week 44, 2023

Atom Computing Previews an 1180 Qubit Neutral Atom Processor

Atom Computing has previewed its next generation neutral atom process that will sport 1180 qubits on a 1225 site (35 x 35) array. The system is currently being tested in Atom’s laboratory in Boulder, Colorado and expected to be made available to clients in 2024. In many respects, the machine is a scale up of their preceding 100 qubit processor, but it does have some key differences. The most significant is that they have changed the atom species used from Strontium to Ytterbium, and the machine is built for uptime. The design is build in modules and offers continuous loading of the atoms in real time if needed.

Atom has designed its own control electronics with FPGAs to provide them with maximum flexibility. It will retain the excellent coherence times of about 40 seconds that they announced in the previous generation machine but also include the capability to perform mid-circuit measurements, a useful feature for experimenting with error correction algorithms. Although they haven’t reached it yet, the company’s goal is to achieve a 2-qubit fidelity of about 99.5% and will provide qubit connectivity to nearest and next nearest neighbors. Unlike other companies working with neutral atoms, the company is concentrating only supporting digital mode and will not support analog mode. The company also indicates that the machine has a smaller footprint for a machine with over 1000 qubits and it also quite power efficient.

Currently, the machine can be programmed using Qiskit and QASM as user interfaces with the potential to support other programming frameworks in the future. The company is working with enterprise, academic, and government users, like Vodafone and Entropica Labs and expect them to start working with the machine in 2024.

Additional information about this announcement is available in a press release provided by Atom Computing that can be accessed here.

Chicago Region Designated as a U.S. Tech Hub for Quantum Technology as Part of the U.S. Chips and Science Act

A second U.S. area has been designated as a Tech Hub for quantum technology. A group called the Bloch Tech Hub, led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), has been chosen to participate as part of Phase 1 of the U.S. Tech Hub program under the Chips and Science Act. The Chicago Quantum Exchange includes university and government lab members including members the?University of Chicago, the US Department of Energy’s?Argonne National Laboratory?and?Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the?University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the?University of Wisconsin–Madison, and?Northwestern University. The CQE also partners with many corporate, non-profit, and regional partners including the?University of Illinois Chicago,?Chicago State University, large enterprise end users, and quantum startup companies such as EeroQ,?qBraid,?memQ, ?Infleqtion,?QuantCAD, and?Great Lakes Crystal Technologies.

A total of 31 regions were designated as tech hubs in eight different technical categories. In addition to the Chicago region, Colorado was also chosen as a tech hub for quantum. Of the 31 regions selected for Phase 1, the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce will select 5-10 Tech Hubs to proceed to Phase 2 for receiving approximately $50-75 million in implementation grants.

Additional information is available in a news release from the Chicago Quantum Exchange here. Also, a web page that explains the Tech Hub program can be found here and a Fact Sheet provided by the White House can be accessed here.

BlueQubit Wins a DARPA Award

BlueQubit, a California based quantum software company, has received an award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of DARPA’s Imagining Practical Applications for a Quantum Tomorrow (IMPAQT) program. The company will be focusing on finding hybrid classical/quantum algorithms that will maximize the potential of full NISQ devices to find solutions without requiring fault-tolerant quantum computers. This will include areas where classical methods fall short, particularly in Gibbs sampling. For this project, BlueQubit will be collaborating with QuEra to use QuEra’s neutral atom computer to execute the quantum programs. BlueQubit’s press release announcing the award can be accessed here.

Another Quantum Networking Test Bed Being Set up in Quebec, Canada with $10.1 Million CAD ($7.3M USD) in Funding

The test bed will start being set up in the DistriQ Quantum Innovation Zone in?Sherbrooke?in October?2023, followed by?Montreal?and?Quebec City?in early?2024. It is being managed by Numana, a non-profit organization that will be responsible for the deployment and operation of the test bed. The $10 million CAD in funding is being provided by Quebec Regional Economic Development?which provided a starting grant of $2.2 million CAD in 2022 and is now adding an additional $4 million to the effort. Also, the Federal Government of Canada will supply an additional $3.6 million.

The test bed will be used by business and other organizations to experiment with quantum networking and is designed to be open, collaborative, adaptable and scalable. It will include terrestrial, aerial and satellite network components. Initially, the network will be set up a three separate metropolitan networks in each location with an eventually desire to tie them together in the future to establish a?Quebec-wide quantum communication network. It will be the first quantum network being set up in Canada with other test beds being set up in the U.S. in Illinois, New York, Arizona, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and the Washington D.C. metropolitan area..

A press release announcing this new test bed has been provided by Numana and can be accessed here.

D-Wave Extends and Expands Its Agreement with QuantumBasel

When we reported in December 2022 about the creation of QuantumBasel, a quantum computing hub for commercial use in Switzerland, we noted that D-Wave along with IBM were the two initial hardware manufacturers that would be supporting this effort. Since then, they were joined by IonQ which announced in June that they would be working with QuantumBasel too. In July, D-Wave and QuantumBasel along with VINCI Energies announced they were using D-Wave’s quantum annealer to study how to optimize the design of HVAC systems.

Now, D-Wave has announced that they are extending and expanding their agreement with QuantumBasel. The extension will be for another two years and the expansion will be an agreement for D-Wave to open a European office on the QuantumBasel campus. This will make it easier for D-Wave to support its European customers including such organizations as ?Ko? Holding, Satispay, Poznan Superconducting and Network Center, and Cineca.

D-Wave has issued a press release announcing this extension to their QuantumBasel agreement which can be seen here.

SCALINQ and Atlantic Quantum Partner on Large-scale Quantum Computing Via Cutting-Edge Hardware

By Carolyn Mathas

SCALINQ and Atlantic Quantum are partnering to accelerate qubit control, characterization, and measurements on state-of-the-art cryogenic hardware. ?Using a collaborative R&D and technology development approach, each company brings solid experience that, when combined, will speed technology developments.

Atlantic Quantum’s goal of a fault-tolerant, large-scale quantum computer is supported by its proprietary qubit control technique and a unique hardware architecture. The company claims that this fluxonium-based qubit architecture provides the lowest error rates so far and performs robust operations between qubits with greater accuracy than previously possible. The architecture is the basis of the company’s quantum processors. Building quantum computers using a new circuit that addresses accuracy and scalability from the ground up eliminates tradeoffs that are necessary when trying to solve both issues simultaneously.

SCALINQ is bringing its expertise in cryogenic, microwave devices to the partnership, and is supplying Atlantic Quantum with the cryogenic hardware necessary for its experiments. LINQER SCALINQs packaging solution hosts multiple devices simultaneously and the solution allows them to reliably measure devices repeatedly, and efficiently. It combines flexibility and scalability, supporting a high density of control lines with PCBs that can be customized to fit Atlantic Quantum’s requirements.?

The partnership is expected to provide ongoing compatibility between two companies, while also creating stronger quantum technology development between Europe and the U.S.

Additional information about this announcement is available in a press release provided by SCALINQ that can be accessed here.

IonQ is Making Progress with Its Future Generation Barium Based Platform

In December 2022, IonQ announced that it was researching the use of barium instead of ytterbium for a future generation machine. Barium has certain potential advantages in an ion trap machine because it is more compatible with telecom wavelengths for control and also allows the use of higher power lasers which can improve gate delays. But, up until now, none of the IonQ publicly announced machines had yet switched to using barium. The previous Harmony, Aria, and Forte machines and also the upcoming Tempo processor announced last month will continue to use ytterbium.

However, in a clear sign the company is making progress, they have announced been able to achieve a performance metric of #AQ29 on a prototype machine they have developed that uses barium. Although that level is not quite as good as the latest #AQ35 performance metric they have seen with the ytterbium based IonQ Forte Enterprise systems, one should remember that the barium processors are still at the very early stage of their lifecycle. So it is very likely IonQ will be able to make many more optimizations to the designs in the future that will allow the barium based platforms to ultimately surpass the ytterbium ones.

IonQ has issued a press release announcing their progress with barium which be seen here.

PASQAL to Collaborate with Sumitomo’s QX-PJ Project on Low Altitude Air Traffic Control

As drones and other low flying objects like drones and flying cars proliferate, the sky will face increasing complex air traffic control issues as there may be hundreds or thousands of them travelling at a low altitude in the same geographic area. One thing to remember is that the problem might be even more complex than terrestrial traffic control because this scenario needs to work in three dimensions while automobile traffic only travels in two dimensions. In 2021, the Sumitomo Corporation in Japan formed a Quantum Transformation Project (QX-PJ) to research this problem and has now turned to PASQAL in what is called “Quantum Sky” to see how PASQAL’s system can run the necessary calculations. Previously, the QX-PJ project used a quantum annealer for the calculations but now they will explore using the PASQAL processor using both analog and digital mode to see if it can accomplish the tasks any better. A press release from PASQAL announcing their participation in this project is available here.

Mware and QuEra Collaborate to Integrate QuEra’s Processor with QMware’s Hybrid Quantum Computing Cloud

QMware is a European base provider of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) that provides a hybrid quantum cloud that includes classical high-performance computing capabilities, quantum simulators, and quantum processors in a secure private quantum runtime environment. The target a broad spectrum of European customers across research, industry, and academia as potential clients. In this new development, QMware will be integrating QuEra’s 256 Aquila-class machines and FPQA?? technology with their platform to offer end users a hybrid quantum/classical capability that can also offer customers an analog quantum computing capability. Additional information is available in a press release posted on the QMware website here and also the QuEra website here.

PASQAL Will Partner with GESDA to Support the Open Quantum Institute

Earlier this month, we reported on the launch of the Open Quantum Institute (OQI) supported by UBS, the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation (GESDA), CERN, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Swiss universities ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). The purpose of the institute will be to accelerate the usage of quantum computing to support implementation of six of the?UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PASQAL has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GESDA to support OQI’s activities. The support will include providing cloud access to PASQAL’s quantum devices, providing tools and training, and contributing technical support for the implementation of use cases. Additional information can be found in a news release posted on the PASQAL website here.

New Office Expansions for Quantum Machines and Alice & Bob

Quantum Machines has announced it is create a new subsidiary in Germany called QM Technologies GmbH and is setting the subsidiary’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. There is a large amount of quantum activity in Germany and this new subsidiary will help the company access and participate in these projects. This will be Quantum Machines second European hub joining one in Denmark that they obtained in March 2022 when they acquired QDevil. In addition, the company has local teams in US,?Canada,?France,?Japan, and?Australia. A press release from Quantum Machines announcing the opening of this new German headquarters can be accessed here.

Alice & Bob is expanding its presence in North America and is opening a Boston area office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their Chief Product Officer, Blaise Vignon, will become the President of Alice & Bob, USA and will concentrate on business development. The company indicates that their logical cat qubit architecture could be available as soon as 2024 and this will give them an opportunity to introduce their offers to organizations in North America. The company has also issued a press release with additional information that is available here.

Quantum Synergy: Enabling Groundbreaking Research in National Labs with Quantum Computers

By Pedro Lopes, QuEra Computing

National laboratories have long been at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation, playing a crucial role in accelerating progress. Their infrastructure, established during the Second World War and continuously evolving since, has enabled significant discoveries in areas such as nuclear energy, weather forecasting (including climate change), and materials development for battery and carbon capture technologies, addressing pressing challenges faced by humanity.

From their inception, national labs have recognized the importance of high-performance computing. They were early adopters of supercomputing technologies that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, positioning them as leaders in complex modeling, simulation, and data analysis. These capabilities have been instrumental in facilitating major discoveries, as well as in the training of sophisticated contemporary artificial intelligence models.

This visionary mindset also drove national labs to develop a keen interest in the recent emergence of quantum computers. Although still in relative infancy, quantum computing promises exponential advancements in computational power, leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics. Whether for simulating novel materials, improving machine learning capabilities, or predicting extreme weather events, quantum computing capabilities can contribute to existing research directions and open up new ones.

Access to diverse quantum computing platforms is paramount from a national lab perspective. Quantum computers today come in various technologies—superconducting qubits, trapped ions, photonics, and neutral atoms—each with distinct advantages and potential use cases. Today, no single platform is best suited for all problems. Providing access to a range of computers and modalities ensures that researchers have the best tools to meet their diverse research needs and fosters resilience in this rapidly evolving field.

A crucial question is how to best provide such access: whether on-premises or via the cloud. On-premises quantum computers offer advantages such as full control over scheduling and availability, reduced reliance on external connectivity, data protection for sensitive applications, tighter integration with existing classical computing resources, and opportunities for custom modifications. They also facilitate in-house development of the expertise required to operate and maintain these cutting-edge machines. Remote access, on the other hand, offers flexibility, reduces initial capital outlays, outsources the management and maintenance activities to cloud providers, and protects against rapid obsolescence of on-premises systems. The optimal choice depends on the specific circumstances of each Lab.

Beyond hardware access, national labs can benefit from direct access to the scientists who develop and maintain quantum computers. Such scientists, often employed by quantum computing vendors, provide invaluable expertise and assistance in managing quantum infrastructure. These experts possess in-depth knowledge of their machines and stay at the forefront of quantum computing research. They can help decide which problems are a good fit for today’s quantum computers and assist in the optimal mapping of the problem to the capabilities of the hardware. In the case of neutral-atom computers, some of which can uniquely operate in both analog computing mode and digital gate-based mode, this expertise becomes even more critical due to the added complexity and flexibility.

At QuEra, we actively foster relationships with U.S. National Labs, exemplifying the value of close partnerships in designing optimal quantum computing services tailored to their needs. Through a collaborative effort, we have provided one such lab with access to our cutting-edge neutral atom quantum computer. The primary objective of this particular collaboration was to empower the lab’s quantum team to become proficient in our quantum computing technology, enabling them to subsequently allocate computing resources and technical support to their own user community. Our partnership revolves around a joint project, offering the lab’s team hands-on experience and direct technical guidance from our experts in a real-life setting, simulating their future interactions with the scientists they will serve. The project was also designed to strategically use quantum dynamics simulations – the key strength of QuEra’s Aquila – to address a problem that simultaneously impacts the chemistry, materials, and high-energy physics communities, arguably the main audiences that the US national labs cater to. Through further community-building activities, including training and brainstorming sessions with the lab’s larger user base, we help set the lab’s quantum program for success. Through this design, our collaboration with the lab’s developers has rapidly expanded, with interest from scientists growing five-fold in just a few months, underscoring the relevance and appeal of our resources.

We have addressed specific research inquiries through ongoing interaction and collaboration, tailored our system to meet the lab’s requirements, and collectively overcame challenges. The feedback and insights gained from this collaboration have been invaluable in refining our technology and shaping our future development plans, and of course have also been very valuable to the lab itself. This symbiotic relationship enhances the lab’s research capabilities and advances our understanding and progress in neutral-atom quantum computing. Such real-world experiences highlight the immense potential of collaborative endeavors.

We made our cloud resources available to a different national lab in a separate project. That lab now has access to superconducting, annealing, trapped ions, and now neutral-atom computers. It allows them to benchmark different modalities and make recommendations to their users on what the most appropriate resource is for any given problem. QuEra also benefited from this interaction, providing us a better understanding of the scheduling, reporting, and billing requirements of a sophisticated user.

A collaborative approach, where vendors closely work with national labs to understand their needs, provide appropriate hardware, and offer ongoing expert support, brings significant benefits. It creates a virtuous cycle where lab feedback informs future hardware and software developments, and lab discoveries push the boundaries of what is possible with quantum computers. Such cooperation not only accelerates progress within each national lab but also contributes to the collective quantum computing capabilities of the broader scientific community. It ensures that these powerful tools are not limited to a select few but are accessible to a diverse array of researchers working on society’s most pressing scientific challenges.

Furthermore, it’s important to note that the connection between quantum computing and traditional supercomputing resources is being beyond our borders. Several organizations in the European Union chose to strategically pursue high-performance computing developments since the early 2010s. White papers identifying trends and needs for heterogeneous computing environments, including quantum nodes alongside CPUs and GPUs, have been published. This planning has manifested in recent moves by leading European high-performance computing centers, both public and private, to acquire quantum computing nodes. Notably, the Jülich Supercomputing Center in Germany has made significant efforts in this regard, and the EuroHPC program has designated six different countries to purchase six different quantum computers for shared exploration.

In conclusion, national laboratories play a vital role in driving scientific and technological progress, and quantum computers hold immense potential to accelerate this progress. By providing these institutions with access to diverse quantum computing platforms and expert guidance, hardware developers not only contribute to advancing the labs’ missions but also enhance their own ability to offer quality services that address society’s challenges through quantum computing. The pursuit of such relationships is a global trend, and national labs that wish to continue to be beacons of innovation and research leadership must continue to invest in quantum computing integration.

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