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A quantum computer in a vibration-free building. Quantum computing will ultimately speed up the computational power that drives many industries and could affect everything from drug discovery to how data is secured.

Oliver Berg | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Quantum computing was already gathering pace in Japan and elsewhere in Asia when the University of Tokyo and IBM launched their new quantum computer last year.

The computer was the second such system built outside the United States by IBM the latest in a string of key moves in quantum research.

The university and IBM have led the Quantum Innovation Initiative Consortium alongside heavyweights of Japanese industry like Toyota and Sony all with a view to nailing the quantum question.

Quantum computing refers to the use of quantum mechanics to run calculations. Quantum computing can run multiple processes at once by using quantum bits, unlike binary bits which power traditional computing.

The new technology will ultimately speed up the computational power that drives many industries and could affect everything from drug discovery to how data is secured. Several countries are racing to get quantum computers fully operational.

Christopher Savoie, CEO of quantum computing firm Zapata, who spent much of his career in Japan, said technological development has been very U.S.-centric. But now, Asian nations don't want to be left behind on quantum computing, he added.

"Nation states like India, Japan and China are very much interested in not being the only folks without a capability there. They don't want to see the kind of hegemony that's arisen where the large cloud aggregators by and large are only US companies," Savoie said, referring to the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

China, for example, has committed a great deal of brainpower to the quantum race. Researchers have touted breakthroughs and debates are simmering over whether China has surpassed the U.S. on some fronts.

India, for its part, announced plans earlier this year to invest $1 billion in a five-year plan to develop a quantum computer in the country.

James Sanders, an analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, told CNBC that governments around the world have been taking more interest in quantum computing in recent years.

In March, Sanders published a report that found governments have pledged around $4.2 billion to support quantum research. Some notable examples include South Korea's $40 million investment in the field and Singapore's Ministry of Education's funding of a research center, The Center for Quantum Technologies.

All of these efforts have a long lens on the future. And for some, the benefits of quantum can seem nebulous.

According to Sanders, the benefits of quantum computing aren't going to be immediately evident for everyday consumers.

What is likely to happen is that quantum computers will wind up utilized in designing products that consumers eventually buy.

James Sanders

analyst, S&P Global Market Intelligence

"On a bad day, I'm talking people down from the idea of quantum cell phones. That's not realistic, that's not going to be a thing," he said.

"What is likely to happen is that quantum computers will wind up utilized in designing products that consumers eventually buy."

There are two major areas where quantum's breakthrough will be felt industry and defense.

A staff member of tech company Q.ant puts a chip for quantum computing in a test station in Stuttgart, Germany, on Sept. 14, 2021. It's expected that the power of quantum computing will be able to decrypt RSA encryption, one of the most common encryption methods for securing data.

Thomas Kienzle | Afp | Getty Images

"Areas where you have HPC [high-performance computing] are areas where we will be seeing quantum computers having an impact. It's things like material simulation, aerodynamic simulation, these kinds of things, very high, difficult computational problems, and then machine learning artificial intelligence," Savoie said.

In pharmaceuticals, traditional systems for calculating the behavior of drug molecules can be time-consuming. The speed of quantum computing could rapidly increase these processes around drug discovery and, ultimately, the timeline for drugs coming to market.

On the flip side, quantum could present security challenges. As computing power advances, so too does the risk to existing security methods.

"The longer-term [motivation] but the one that that everyone recognizes as an existential threat, both offensively and defensively, is the cryptography area. RSA will be eventually compromised by this," Savoie added.

RSA refers to one of the most common encryption methods for securing data, developed in 1977, that could be upended by quantum's speed. It is named after its inventors Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman.

You're seeing a lot of interest from governments and communities that don't want to be the last people on the block to have that technology because [other nations] will be able to decrypt our messages.

Christopher Savoie

CEO of Zapata

"You're seeing a lot of interest from governments and communities that don't want to be the last people on the block to have that technology because [other nations] will be able to decrypt our messages," Savoie said.

Magda Lilia Chelly, chief information security officer at Singaporean cybersecurity firm Responsible Cyber, told CNBC that there needs to be a twin track of encryption and quantum research and development so that security isn't outpaced.

"Some experts believe that quantum computers will eventually be able to break all forms of encryption, while others believe that new and more sophisticated forms of encryption will be developed that cannot be broken by quantum computers," Chelly said.

A quantum processor on a prototype of a quantum computer. There needs to be a twin track of encryption and quantum research and development so that security isn't outpaced, said Magda Lilia Chelly, chief information security officer at Singaporean cybersecurity firm Responsible Cyber.

Julian Stratenschulte/dpa | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

"In particular, [researchers] have been looking at ways to use quantum computers to factor large numbers quickly. This is important because many of the modern encryption schemes used today rely on the fact that it is very difficult to factor large numbers," she added.

If successful, this would make it possible to break most current encryption schemes, making it possible to unlock messages that are encrypted.

Sanders said the development and eventual commercialization of quantum computing will not be a straight line.

Issues like the threat to encryption can garner attention from governments, but research and breakthroughs, as well as mainstream interest, can be "stop-start," he said.

Progress can also be affected by fluctuating interest of private investors as quantum computing won't deliver a quick return on investment.

"There are a lot of situations in this industry where you might have a lead for a week and then another company will come out with another type of the advancement and then everything will go quiet for a little bit."

Another looming challenge for quantum research is finding the right talent with specific skills for this research.

"Quantum scientists that can do quantum computing don't grow on trees," Savoie said, adding that cross-border collaboration is necessary in the face of competing government interests.

"Talent is global. People don't get to choose what country they're born in or what nationality they have."

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The race toward a new computing technology is heating up and Asia is jumping on the trend - CNBC

LEESBURG, Va., June 07, 2022 Quantum Computing Inc. today unveiled QAmplify, a suite of quantum software technologies designed to expand the processing power of current quantum computers by up to 20x. QAmplify is intended to supercharge any quantum computer to solve business problems today. The company is actively working with customers and partners in scaling the amplification capabilities of its ready-to-run Qatalystsoftware, which is designed to eliminate the need for complex quantum programming and runs seamlessly across a variety of quantum computers. QCI has filed for patents on QAmplify technology.

Currently there are two primary technology approaches that deliver a wide range of capabilities spanning the current Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) hardware landscape; gate model (e.g. IBM, IonQ, Rigetti, OQC, etc.) and annealing (e.g. D-Wave) quantum computers. Both are limited in the size of problems (i.e., number of variables and complexity of computations) they can process. For example, gate models can typically process from 10-120 data variables, and annealing machines can process approximately 400 variables in a simple problem set. These small problem sets restrict the size of the problems that can be solved by todays QPUs, limiting businesses ability to explore the value of quantum computing.

QCIs patent-pending QAmplify suite of powerful QPU-expansion software technologies overcomes these challenges, dramatically increasing the problem set size that each can process. The QAmplify gate model expansions demonstrated capabilities have been benchmarked at a 500% (5x) increase and the annealing expansion has been benchmarked at up to a 2,000% (20x) increase.

QAmplify maximizes end-user investment in current QPUs by allowing quantum users to transform from science experiments to solving real-world problems without waiting for the quantum hardware industry to catch up. For example, in terms of real-world applications, this means that an IBM quantum computer with QAmplify could solve a problem with over 600 variables, versus the current limit of 127 variables. A D-Wave annealing computer with QAmplify could solve an optimization with over 4,000 variables, versus the current limit of 200 for a dense matrix problem set.

It is central to QCIs mission to deliver practical and sustainable value to the quantum computing industry, said William McGann, Chief Operating and Technology Officer of QCI. QCIs innovative software solutions deliver expansive compute capabilities for todays state-of-the-art QPU systems and offer great future scalability as those technologies continually advance. The use of our QAmplify algorithm in the2021 BMW Group Quantum Computing Challengefor vehicle sensor optimization provided proof of performance by expanding the effective capability of the annealer by 20-fold, to 2,888 qubits.

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Quantum Computing Inc. Unveils Software Built to Expand Quantum Processing Power By Up to 20x - insideHPC - insideHPC

Today, the LUMI pre-exascale supercomputer was inaugurated in Kajaani, Finland. LUMIwhich currently weighs in around 152 Linpack petaflops, but is expected to soon exceed 375represents the largest success thus far of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, Europes concerted supercomputing play. LUMI marks the beginning of the end for the first phase of EuroHPC, but the second phase (keywords: exascale and quantum) is already underway. Here, we cover the state of EuroHPC systems and initiatives both past and future, informed by both anHPCwire interview with Anders Jensen, executive director of EuroHPC, and his session at ISC 2022.

In June 2019, EuroHPC selected eight supercomputer centers across the European Union to host its first eight systemsfive decidedly petascale systems, and three pre-exascale systems designed to rate in the hundreds of petaflops. Five of those octuplets have already been delivered.

Vega, the first EuroHPC supercomputer delivered, is a 1,020-node Atos-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs that launched in Slovenia in April 2021. The system has two modules listed on the spring Top500 list: its 960-node CPU partition (3.82 Linpack petaflops, #131) and its 60-node GPU partition (3.10 Linpack petaflops, #172).

MeluXina is an 813-node Atos-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs that launched in Luxembourg in June 2021. MeluXina also has two modules listed on the spring Top500 list: its 573-node cluster module (2.29 Linpack petaflops, #306) and its 200-node accelerator module (10.52 Linpack petaflops, #48).

Karolina is an 831-node HPE-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs (along with a handful of Intel Xeon CPUs) that launched in Czechia in the summer of 2021. Karolina, too, has two modules listed on the spring Top500 list: its CPU partition (2.84 Linpack petaflops, #202) and its GPU partition (6.75 Linpack petaflops, #79).

Discoverer is a 1,128-node Atos-built system with AMD Epyc Rome CPUs that launched in Bulgaria in October 2021. At 4.52 Linpack petaflops, the system ranked 113th on the spring Top500 list.

LUMI, the first of EuroHPCs pre-exascale systems to be delivered, is a 4,112-node HPE-built system with AMD Epyc Trento CPUs and AMD MI250X GPUs (the same architecture as the new Frontier exascale supercomputer) that launched in Finland today. Currently, LUMIs main 2,560-node GPU-accelerated partition (LUMI-G) rates at 151.90 Linpack petaflops, earning third place on the spring Top500 list, while its 1,536-node CPU partition (LUMI-C) rates at 6.30 Linpack petaflops and placed 84th. LUMIs power is expected to dramatically increase in the coming weeks, eventually exceeding 375 Linpack petaflops.

Deucalion will be the last of EuroHPCs first five petascale systems when it is delivered in Portugal later this year. Deucalion, interestingly, will consist of three partitions: a 1,632-node Arm partition based on Fujitsus A64FX processor (expected to deliver 3.8 Linpack petaflops), a 500-node x86 partition powered by AMD Epyc Rome CPUs (1.62 Linpack petaflops) and a 33-node accelerated partition with both AMD CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs. [For] Deucalion, were waiting for the datacenter to be finalized, everything else is ready, Jensen said.

Leonardo will be the second of EuroHPCs pre-exascale systems when it arrives later this year in Italy. The Atos-built supercomputer will include a 1,536-node data-centric module with Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids CPUs and a 3,456-node booster module with Intel Xeon Ice Lake CPUs and Nvidia A100 GPUs (240.5 Linpack petaflops). Leonardo is being constructed as we sit here and I hope and expect that we will see an announcement on the November Top500, Jensen said.

MareNostrum 5, the long-awaited successor to the MareNostrum 4 system at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), is EuroHPCs problem child. In October 2020, Jensen had said to expect an announcement on the procurement in the coming weeks. That did not come to pass; the tender was canceled in May 2021 amid much purported drama before being reissued in late December. That second tender closed at the end of January 2022.

[For] MareNostrum 5, we went through the process of the procurement, weve closed that, and with a little luck, within the next week or so youll be able to see an announcement on that moving forward and with a timeline, Jensen said. Were in the final rounds of contract negotiations. (It has now been two weeks since that interview, and we eagerly await further news on MareNostrum 5.)

MareNostrum 5 is aimed at delivering at least 205 Linpack petaflops.

All eight of those systems are covered by EuroHPCs first regulation from the European Commission. That first regulation covered the slate through 2021; now, the Joint Undertaking has a new regulationand a new budgetfor the coming six years. That budget (around 7 billion) consists of around 3.5 billion from the Digital Europe Program, the Horizon Europe Program and the Connecting Europe Facility, all of which is expected to be matched by national contributions from EuroHPC member states that host forthcoming systems and facilities.

Europes first exascale systems (and more!)

Speaking of which: included in that budget are at least two exascale systems, with the site selection for one coming very, very soon. Shortly before Christmas, we went out with that callwhich countries would like to host essentially the first European exascale system? Jensen said. And weve had the responses back, weve evaluated them; now, I cant disclose any more than that other than that its on the agenda of our governing board meeting, which takes place in Kajaaniweve colocated it with the inauguration of LUMI. So, on the 14th of June, the governing board is to decide who will host Europes first exascale machine along with also a number of new mid-ranges.

Its clear were going to continue to invest in machines, but its also for geographical diversitywe want to get more users on it, we want to increase the knowledge within HPC, he added. So I think youre going to continue to see new countries joining the HPC scene and wishing to have machines of their own so they can grow the ecosystem within their country.

As far as when we can expect to learn the outcomes of that meeting: I think you can expect some announcements shortly following that [meeting], Jensen said, and then starts the hard work of actually delivering.

Quantum

Quantum computing is also part of EuroHPCs second phasewith an asterisk. With the new regulation, quantum was added to the EuroHPC agenda, and it was added heavily, Jensen said. So weve gone out again with a call where were asking who wishes to host the first EuroHPC quantum computers. That call has not yet closed. Jensen did, during his session on EuroHPC at ISC 2022, clarify that much of the research and innovation on quantum technologies still rests under the purview of the European Commission; as it stands, EuroHPC has been tasked with delivering quantum infrastructure for scientists and coupling quantum technologies to HPC.

The aim is to provide access to quantum computers to the European community just like were providing access to HPC systems, he said. We are focusing on diversity in technology, so what we would like to have is as many quantum technologies available so that scientists and any potential users of them can get to know what using quantum is all about and we can enrich our knowledge on that.

The Joint Undertaking, he said, was also looking to federate and interconnect its existing machines. Right now, were buying a number of systems and were making them available, but we cant help but think that putting them together, some of them, into bigger systems, could have potential, Jensen said. And vis-a-vis federation: as the number of EuroHPC systems grows, Jensen said, we cant keep on managing them as individual machines.

The far future

The regulation also dictates post-exascale, but we have yet to define what post-exascale means, Jensen said.

Jensen also stressed the importance of building HPC talent and technology in Europe. I think the whole Covid situation and different geopolitical situations have led Europe to wake up to the factand its not just in HPC, its just in generalthat weve become very reliant on other parts of the world supplying what we may not realize [are] very critical components, Jensen said. And then all of a sudden you need it, and thats when you realize its critical.

We have a very ambitious agenda of wanting a significant European technology footprint within the second exascale system that were going to fund, Jensen continued; in his talk the following day, he specified a processor built by the European Processor Initiative (EPI). Like EuroHPC, EPI entered its second phase this year; that second phase aims to finalize EPIs first-gen low-power processors and develop second-generation processors. In parallel to that, you have the whole [European Chips Act] thats come to life via the Commission, and all the interesting things that thats going to bring, Jensen continued, and on the EuroHPC side we have already a placeholder for research and innovation calls in and around RISC-V and other processor technologies.

Europe needs to regain some self-sufficiencysome ability to do things ourselves, Jensen said. That doesnt mean we dont want to play with others, it just means we also want to be able to do things. And on the technology side, something like a European processor is an extremely important component in order to be able to rest assured [that] we would be more self-sustaining. But also, its not just about thatits also about regaining that knowledge of how to do it so that we have the expertise and we can build an ecosystem around it.

To that end, Jensen said that EuroHPC will also be issuing a number of calls to further increase the knowledge of HPC and the skills within HPC.

Alongside that emphasis on homegrown European technology, non-European companies like HPE and Intel have also been investing heavily in establishing fabs, factories and innovation centers in Europe in recent months.

What weve seen from a number of players is a willingness to play with Europe, to be part of this, Jensen said when asked about these developments. What were saying as Europe is: we want to be part of it! We dont want just to buy something off the shelf that we ship inno, we want to be part of the process. And I think what a number of manufacturers and non-European companies have seen is: there is some expertise within Europe that they can also tap into.

Weve clearly seen a change in a number of non-European players, which I really welcome, he added, and Id like to think that the engagement of EuroHPC had at least a little to do with it.

Header image: LUMIs new datacenter. Image courtesy of CSC.

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As LUMI Launches, a Look at the State of EuroHPC - HPCwire

As quantum computing race heats up, EvolutionQ secures $7 million CAD for quantum-safe cybersecurity.

Led by a group of cryptography and quantum computing experts from the University of Waterloo, EvolutionQ wants to help organizations ready themselves for quantum computers.

The Kitchener-Waterloo startup has raised over $7 million CAD ($5.5 million USD) in Series A financing led by Quantonation, a Paris-based, quantum technology-focused VC fund, with support from Torontos The Group Ventures, to scale up its quantum-safe cybersecurity tech.

The price of being too late is far too great.-Michele Mosca, EvolutionQ

Existing cybersecurity infrastructure is built on cryptographic puzzles that traditional computers struggle to solve. But according to experts, quantum computers, which promise to deliver massive jumps forward in processing power, could breeze past these roadblocks.

EvolutionQ co-founder and CEO Michele Mosca believes that amid recent advancements in the space, the time is now for organizations to future-proof their systems and ensure they are ready to weather the threat of quantum computers by migrating to quantum-safe cryptography. He should knowprior to launching EvolutionQ, Mosca co-founded the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, where he also worked as a professor.

Quantum computers are getting closer and closer, said Mosca, in an interview with BetaKit. Theres a lot of awareness of this nowyou can already get access to the current prototypes. Now, we know theyre not cryptographically relevant today, but given how long it takes to get cryptographically relevant, we need to be getting ready.

EvolutionQ aims to ease this process. Founded in 2015 by Mosca and CTO Norbert Ltkenhausa pair of University of Waterloo professors and quantum computing experts-turned tech entrepreneursEvolutionQs all-equity Series A round marks the startups first external financing.

The Group Ventures Managing Partner Chanda Carr told BetaKit that the firm was attracted, in part, to the strength of EvolutionQs leadership, calling Mosca and Ltkenhaus second to none in the industry.

Quantonation Managing Partner Christophe Jurczak echoed the sentiment. He described EvolutionQ as the most remarkable team of academic founders in the field of quantum-safe cybersecurity, with seminal contributions in the sector and a unique viewpoint; giving them the ability to understand the threat that emerging quantum computers represent for companies, governments, and individuals.

RELATED: D-Wave hopes to raise $431 million CAD as it prepares to go public via SPAC

Jurczak added that he was particularly impressed by EvolutionQs focus on reducing expenses for customers by minimizing tech-switching costs between hardware vendors. They are providing the missing component to build technologically and economically effective quantum networks, he claimed.

EvolutionQ was bootstrapped up to this point, getting its start providing advisory services and risk assessments, which Mosca said helped EvolutionQ grow and educate the market for quantum-safe cybersecurity, and provided the firm with revenue during its early days.

Through this process, Mosca said EvolutionQ identified a gap that we knew we could fill better than anyone else. Three years ago, the company built and launched its flagship BasejumpQDN software product, which allows organizations building a network based on quantum key distribution (QKD) devices to deploy and manage quantum technologies throughout said network.

According to The Group Ventures Managing Partner Sion Balass, while there are a lot of players supporting quantum safety, many operate in the post-quantum cryptography space, whereas EvolutionQ serves the QKD solution space, which he claims is significantly less competitive.

RELATED: Xanadu secures $120 million CAD led by Bessemer to build photonic quantum computer

According to Mosca, the stakes are very high given that almost everything in todays world is connected by technology. Its the entire economy, he said. Its not just information security and safety Its operational technology, cyber-physical systems, driverless cars, implanted medical devices.

While the development of quantum computers has been slow moving, given that it takes time to ensure systems are quantum-ready, Mosca says organizations cant afford to wait to update their cybersecurity. We cant tolerate much risk herewe need to be ready, he said. The price of being too late is far too great.

To date, several companies have developed quantum computer prototypes, from big tech firms like Google and IBM, to startups like Toronto-based Xanadu.

Xanadu, which is reportedly raising $100 million USD led by Georgian at a $1 billion post-money valuation, recently hit an elusive milestone with its Borealis machine, delivering a result beyond the practical reach of a conventional computer system, according to a paper published in the research journal Nature.

RELATED: The Group Ventures secures $20 million for Fund II to invest in Canadian, Israeli tech startups

Meanwhile, Burnaby-based quantum computing pioneer D-Wave is planning to go public on the NYSE as part of a $431 million CAD SPAC deal that is expected to close during the second quarter of this year.

While VC funding has cooled in recent months amid a broader market slowdown, cybersecurity investment has remained high, benefitting firms like EvolutionQ and Vancouver and Mountain View, California-based LimaCharlie.

EvolutionQlike D-Wavehas a presence in Germany, where the company opened an office in 2020. The startup plans to invest the fresh capital in sales, marketing, and engineering, as it looks to grow its presence both in Canada and internationally, and expand its product.

From a customer standpoint, the startup targets its tech and advisory services towards financial institutions, which Mosca said have a high degree of cybersecurity maturity, resources, and talent, and have been amongst EvolutionQs earliest adopters. EvolutionQ also works with parts of government, and players in the information technology and healthcare spaces.

Feature image of EvolutionQ CEO Michele Mosca, Chief Cryptographer David Jao, CTO Norbert Ltkenhaus, and VP Brian Neill, courtesy EvolutionQ.

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University of Waterloo quantum expert-led EvolutionQ aims to help orgs prepare for the quantum age - BetaKit - Canadian Startup News

QuantWare and QphoX Partner to Provide a Way of Networking Superconducting Quantum Processors

QuantWare is collaborating with another subsystem supplier. In May, we reported on a partnership between QuantWare and QuantrolOx to provide machine learning based qubit control software for QuantWares superconducting processor chips. This time they are partnership with QphoX to provide ways of networking multiple quantum processors together into a mini quantum internet. This approach is gaining popularity because Rigetti is already doing this with their 80 qubit Aspen-M processor and plans to expand upon this with their future 336 qubits machine. Also, IBM announced plans to do this in the future in their latest roadmap release. The key component that QphoX will be contributing to this effort is their Quantum Modem, a quantum transducer that will couple microwave and optical photons through a mechanical intermediary resonator. Additional information about this collaboration can be seen in a news release available on the QuantWare website here.

June 2, 2022

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QuantWare and QphoX Partner to Provide a Way of Networking Superconducting Quantum Processors - Quantum Computing Report