D-Wave Previews Next-Gen Platform; Debuts Pegasus Topology; Targets 5000 Qubits
Quantum computing pioneer D-Wave Systems today “previewed” plans for its next-gen adiabatic annealing quantum computing platform which will feature a new underlying fab technology, reduced noise, increased connectivity, 5000-qubit processors, and an expanded toolset for creation of hybrid quantum-classical applications. The company plans to “incrementally” roll out platform elements over the next 18 months.
One major change is implementation of a new topology, Pegasus, in which each qubit is connected to 15 other qubits making it “the most connected of any commercial quantum system in the world,” according to D-Wave. In the current topology, Chimera, each qubit is connected to six other qubits. The roughly 2.5x jump in connectivity will enable users to tackle larger problems with fewer qubits and achieve better performance reports D-Wave.
“The reason we are announcing the preview now is because we will be making this technology available incrementally over the next 18 months and we wanted to provide a framework,” Alan Baratz, executive vice president, R&D and Chief Product Officer, D-Wave, told HPCwire. The plan, he said, is “to start by talking about the new topology now, how it fits into the whole. Then we’ll be announcing new tools, how they fit in. Next you’ll start to see some of the new low noise technology – that will initially be on our current generation system and you’ll see that in the cloud.” The final piece will be early versions of the 5000-qubit next generation systems.
It’s an ambitious plan. Identifying significant milestones now, but without specific dates, is an interesting gambit. Starting now, users can use D-Wave’s Ocean development tools which include compilers for porting of problems into the Pegasus topology. D-Wave launched its cloud-accessed development platform last fall – LEAP – and many of the new features and tools will show up there first (see HPCwire article, D-Wave Is Latest to Offer Quantum Cloud Platform).
Bob Sorensen, chief analyst for quantum computing at Hyperion Research, had a positive reaction to D-Wave’s plan, “This announcement indicates that D-Wave continues to advance the state of the art in its quantum computing efforts. Although the increase from 2000 to 5000 qubits is impressive in itself, what strikes me is the new Pegasus topology. I expect that this increased connectivity will prove to be a major driver of new, interesting, and heretofore unrealizable QC algorithms and applications. Finally, I think it is important to note that D-Wave continues to listen to its wide, growing, and increasingly experienced customer base to help guide D-Wave’s future system designs. Being able to tap into the collective expertise of such a user base continues to be a critical element driving the evolution of D-Wave systems.”
Altogether, says D-Wave, the features of its next-gen system are expected to accelerate the race for commercial relevance and so-called quantum advantage – the goal of solving a problem sufficiently better on a quantum computer than on a classical computer to warrant switching to quantum computing for that application. D-Wave has aggressively marketed its success selling machines to commercial and government customers and says those users have developed “more than 100 early applications in areas as diverse as airline scheduling, election modeling, quantum chemistry simulation, automotive design, preventative healthcare, logistics and more.” How ready those apps are is sometimes debated. In any case, Baratz expects the next gen platform to have enough power (compute, developer tools, etc.) to lead to demonstrating customer advantage....MORE
