Atos develops Q-Obtain benchmark for quantum computing

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HPC will outpace quantum pc performance for a couple of years, however Atos believes corporations desire a quantum computing technique

Cliff Saran

Cliff Saran,
Managing Editor

Published: 04 Dec 2020 14: 30

Quantum computing is prone to be years away, however Atos is making willing enterprises for the age of quantum with benchmarking to serve them measure computational energy.

Per Atos, 2020 has modified into an inflexion level for quantum computing. Sincere-life application areas had been identified which are unable to be solved in the classical world, however is prone to be ready to be solved in the quantum world.

Atos talked about that the glossy metric, called Q-Obtain, measures the right performance of quantum processors when solving an optimisation hiss.

Elie Girard, CEO of Atos, describes Q-Obtain as a universal metric for quantum computing, which goals to measure and assess the quantum computing performance of any gain of qubit. Quantum pc methods require a large quantity of error correction. He talked about that the Q-Obtain metric will serve corporations toughen their working out of the gain of complications where quantum pc methods set apart successfully.

“The category of capabilities where Q-Obtain could maintain an essential affect is in optimisation,” he talked about. Not like man made intelligence (AI), where an info model would possibly well merely no longer be easy to present, Girard believes folks can present the complications a quantum pc is being extinct to unravel.

“I dispute it’s a combinatorial hiss. It’s no longer about folks being unable to mark what the machine does,” he talked about, adding that whereas folks can solve the hiss, the formula they dwell this may perchance no longer scale.

The travelling salesman hiss is a successfully-identified maths hiss, deciding the optimal route a salesman has to take between each and each city, visiting each and every person as soon as. For Girard, a human could with out misfortune design an optimal route for the salesman to talk about with a handful of cities, however this becomes no longer possible because the selection of cities will enhance.

A quantum pc can scale a long way extra, that contrivance it’ll resolve out the optimal route between cities as increasingly are added. “Your brain understands the hiss, however must you develop the dimension, the brain can’t calculate the outcomes,” he added.

One other reputedly straightforward example, talked about Girard, is where a college has to accommodate 400 college students however simplest maintain 100 rooms in its hall of design, and there are 50 pairs of faculty students who abominate each and each varied. Per Girard, the selection of combinations of pairs of faculty students who would possibly be housed together is bigger than the selection of atoms in the universe.

Girard talked about that on the present time’s quantum pc methods measure 15 on the Atos Q-Obtain, an enchancment of 5 from closing 12 months’s quantum pc methods. By next 12 months, he expects quantum pc methods could maintain a Q-Obtain of on the least 20.

To reach so-called quantum supremacy – where a quantum pc can solve a hiss no longer conceivable on a supercomputer – the Q-Obtain would must be around 60. For Girard, this reveals that whereas quantum computing is a selection of years away, it is something industry leaders maintain to fabricate into their mid to long-term strategic planning.

“Despite the indisputable reality that quantum technology would possibly well merely take years, we maintain got identified capabilities which quantum pc methods can solve,” he talked about.

Atos is taking part on the European project, NExt ApplicationS of Quantum Computing, which goals to raise cease to-term quantum capabilities and show mask quantum superiority. Tasks consist of identifying molecules for carbon dioxide capture with Total, work with EDF on optimising the burden of electrical cars on immediate-charging stations, and redefining Monte-Carlo tactics for cease to-term quantum pc methods.

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