World-first: US quantum computer solves problem million years faster than supercomputer
D-Wave Quantum Inc., a California-based startup working in the realm of quantum computing for commercial applications, has solved a real-world useful problem using its D-Wave Advantage 2 prototype annealing quantum computer.
The company confirmed its achievement through a peer-reviewed paper in a highly reputed scientific journal.
According to Moore’s Law, a microchip’s computing power and efficiency doubles every two years. In the short time since computers have been around, we have seen a massive change in their capabilities, even as they continue to shrink in size.
Yet, scientists have been working to build bigger and better computers to carry out exascale computations and help us solve problems like climate change and drug discovery.
Many, however, believe that these problems are outside a supercomputer’s capabilities. Instead, quantum computers that leverage quantum mechanics and can carry out computations that would take years for the even fastest supercomputers are the answer to our problems.
While there has been a lot of buzz around this field, with companies claiming to build computers with more qubits – the information storage units, real-world deployment of this technology has been missing.
What problem did the quantum computer solve?
Researchers at D-Wave performed simulations of programmable spin glasses – a magnetic materials problem known to be computationally hard, as per a press release.
Magnetic minerals are used in various applications ranging from medicine to semiconductors, designing sensors, motors, and much more. However, since these materials are microscopically small, understanding their interactions has been challenging, posing a challenge to material discovery.
Since quantum physics governs the behavior of materials, understanding the quantum nature of magnetic minerals can help identify new applications of these materials.
High-performance computing (HPC) centers and supercomputers use graphic processing units (GPUs) to perform these computations. This approach is not just energy-intensive but also time-consuming.
The research team at D-Wave agreed that this was the right problem to tackle using its Advantage 2 prototype annealing quantum computer.
How did they solve it?
An annealing quantum computer uses quantum mechanics to find optimal solutions to complex problems. In this approach, the system starts in a superposition of all possible solutions, which is a high-energy state, and aims to reach its minimum or low-energy state through a process of annealing – slowly changing the system’s parameters.
When the D-Wave research team posed this problem to their quantum computer and the Frontier supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the quantum computer returned results in minutes. The supercomputer, on the other hand, is estimated to take a million years to solve the problem while consuming annual global electricity.
“This is a remarkable day for quantum computing. Our demonstration of quantum computational supremacy on a useful problem is an industry first,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, in the press release. “All other claims of quantum systems outperforming classical computers have been disputed or involved random number generation of no practical value.”
“Our achievement shows, without question, that D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers are now capable of solving useful problems beyond the reach of the world’s most powerful supercomputers,” Baratz added.
D-Wave offers access to this processor via its quantum cloud service. At the same time, its processor has also grown four times larger with thousands of qubits added, the press release said.
Source: Interesting Engineering
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World-first: US quantum computer solves problem million years faster than supercomputer/World-first: US quantum computer solves problem million years faster than supercomputer