HPC YEARBOOK 2021/22


Why it’s time to get quantum ready


Gemma Church explains how quantum computers will transform the world of science and engineering – but only if we can reach the million-qubit scale


processor has 54 quantum bits (qubits), enough for it to establish ‘quantum supremacy’ back in October 2019. While a truly remarkable result,


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the problem they solved was rather academic in nature and of little commercial value. Solving a problem with real-world applications using a quantum computer is often referred to as ‘quantum advantage’ and a critical goal for quantum computing. To get to quantum advantage,


we need more high-quality qubits – potentially millions of them. But scaling to anywhere near one million qubits is a highly complex and multi-faceted engineering (and physics) challenge. From a quantum computing


hardware perspective, the main issue is with the qubits themselves. By their very nature, they are error-prone and difficult to control, making quantum computers unstable and highly complex systems. Addressing these errors is key. Fortunately, something called quantum error correction exists, which is a type of algorithm that corrects the errors. High level, to make error correction work, we need a lot of qubits, and this is where the requirement for millions of qubits comes from. Building quantum computers that


can reach this scale is, therefore, of paramount importance if you are serious about developing useful


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quantum computers. There are many ways to build these machines, depending on the type of qubit technology used. Quantum hardware companies are currently trying to scale up their quantum computers and include enough qubits to reach quantum advantage. But when we get there, how will


these computers impact the world of science and engineering? Scientists and engineers can


already access the computational power of quantum computers via the cloud. This allows quantum computers to exist in the most suitable locations


while end users can access these resources from anywhere, using their own computers. Just as we’ve seen with cloud-accessible supercomputers, the cloud is a viable way for scientists to access quantum machines and conduct cutting-edge research. As we scale up to millions of qubits, the cloud will remain a viable option for scientists to access quantum resources. QCaaS (Quantum Computing as a Service) models will open the door to anyone who requires access, for example. Other institutions may partner with quantum computing companies to get access to their


www.scientific-computing.com


uantum computing is moving forward, one qubit at a time. Google’s Sycamore


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