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Supercomputers and quantum computing are two of the hottest developments around, and now IBM and AMD are combining to create the best of both worlds: quantum-centric supercomputers. It sounds like something from a science fiction film, but once you dig into the detail it makes complete sense.
IBM is one of the leading names in quantum computing, and even has a quantum roadmap that stretches out to 2033. AMD, meanwhile, is a compute superpower, the manufacturer of the processors behind the world’s fastest supercomputer, El Capitan.
The two giants plan to develop an architecture that combines quantum computing with high-performance computing (HPC). The child of this union is called quantum-centric supercomputing and could lead to countless scientific breakthroughs beyond either classical or quantum computing on their own.
It’s a hybrid approach where the problem is split up and directed at the most efficient part of the computer. IBM and AMD give an example where the quantum computer could tackle “behaviour of atoms and molecules” while the classical supercomputer would then crunch through the data analysis.
“Quantum computing will simulate the natural world and represent information in an entirely new way,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM. “By exploring how quantum computers from IBM and the advanced high-performance compute technologies of AMD can work together, we will build a powerful hybrid model that pushes past the limits of traditional computing.”
That’s the topline. You can gain a greater insight of IBM’s thinking through Jay Gambetta, VP of Quantum and IBM Fellow, in an article called “Quantum-centric supercomputing: a new computational framework for chemistry” that he published in March.
“Over the past decades,” Gambetta wrote, “algorithms for classical computers have revolutionized the simulation of chemistry, bringing new insights into the properties and behavior of molecules. Today… quantum systems have reached the scale and quality needed to tackle challenging scientific problems beyond the reach of exact brute-force classical methods.”
He added: “[We] believe that existing classical workflows should be integrated with quantum components and executed on heterogeneous quantum-classical platforms, in a computational framework that we call quantum-centric supercomputing (QCSC).”
While IBM is coming from the quantum computing angle, AMD is approaching from the HPC (high performance computing) side.
“High-performance computing is the foundation for solving the world’s most important challenges,” said Dr Lisa Su, Chair and CEO of AMD in the official announcement.
“As we partner with IBM to explore the convergence of high-performance computing and quantum technologies, we see tremendous opportunities to accelerate discovery and innovation.”
The key challenge is to create one platform that integrates classical computing hardware – CPUs and GPUs in particular – with IBM quantum computers.
Later this year, we may even see “a demonstration… to show how IBM quantum computers can work in tandem with AMD technologies to deploy hybrid quantum-classical workflows”, AMD’s press release states.
It adds: “The companies also plan to explore how open-source ecosystems, such as Qiskit, could catalyze the development and adoption of new algorithms that leverage quantum-centric supercomputing.”
This could mean “fault-tolerant quantum computers” by the end of this decade, we are promised.
