Industry leaders have collaborated to build a hybrid quantum computing platform in Enschede.
The hybrid quantum computing system integrates high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure with native quantum computing technology – an exciting and challenging innovation for the industry.
The research team – consisting of QMware GmbH, Saint Gallen, Switzerland, and QuiX Quantum NV, Enschede, Netherlands – expects it will be fully operational for commercial applications in August this year.
What is hybrid quantum computing?
Hybrid quantum computing is an industry game changer.
A hybrid quantum computing system is one that combines elements of quantum computing, especially the use of quantum bits or qubits for processing, and classic computers as we know them.
Working together, quantum and classical can perform functions that are difficult or impossible for a classical computer, even supercomputers, to do alone. They also allow users to read out the results of quantum computation via their classical systems.
By combining classical high-performance computing with quantum computing, businesses can tackle today’s toughest challenges in optimisation, simulation, and Machine Learning.
It has the potential to solve complex optimisation problems in a fraction of the usual time for challenges like route planning in logistics or collateral portfolio and risk optimisation in financial services.
Moreover, hybrid computing can also help simulate physical systems with extreme accuracy, which can have implications for drug discovery or materials science.
In the field of Machine Learning, it can improve classification, clustering, and regression tasks.
Expert collaboration paves the way for one-of-a-kind technology
QMware offers a unique hybrid approach to quantum hybrid computing through its software framework.
This will be used to integrate different hardware types with shared memory access and will be operated under a unified Linux operating system. The companies say this will be the first of a new kind of data centre, which aims to increase processing power by ten-fold.
QuiX Quantum uses photonic qubits that operate at room temperature. This interesting process provides a scalable technology for optimisation applications, such as route planning and payload optimisation in logistics or aerospace, or collateral portfolio and risk control in finance.
QMware will use a broadband, low-latency optical fibre connection. This connection directly attaches high-performance computing infrastructure with simulated and native quantum hardware.
“We believe that the photonics quantum processing units by QuiX Quantum, integrated into QMware’s hybrid quantum high-performance computers, are one of the most promising technologies to provide a commercially sustainable hybrid computing advantage,” said George Gesek, CTO and co-founder of QMware.
