D-Wave Delivers 5000-qubit System; Targets Quantum Advantage

By John Russell

September 29, 2020

D-Wave today launched its newest and largest quantum annealing computer, a 5000-qubit goliath named Advantage that features 15-way qubit interconnectivity. It also introduced the D-Wave Launch program intended to jump start “businesses who want to get started building hybrid quantum applications” and a new hybrid solver – the discrete quadratic model (DQM) solver – which will become part of D-Wave’s hybrid solver services, expanding those capabilities.

Perhaps most importantly, D-Wave said Advantage will live up to its name and enable users to reach so-called Quantum Advantage or the ability to run practical applications better than on classical systems.

“Today’s general availability of Advantage delivers the first quantum system built specifically for business, and marks the expansion into production scale commercial applications and new problem types with our hybrid solver services. In combination with our new jump-start program to get customers started, this launch continues what we’ve known at D-Wave for a long time: it’s not about hype, it’s about scaling, and delivering systems that provide real business value on real business applications,” said Alan Baratz, CEO, D-Wave, in the official announcement.

Murray Thom, VP software and cloud services, D-Wave, told HPCwire, “The most important focus for D-Wave is demonstrating customer advantage — whether that’s increased efficiency, first-to-market advantages, reduction in waste, or improved profitability — compared to their current solutions. This means that business can benefit from quantum solutions on a broad range of problems that can be solved as well or better than with existing approaches.”

To buttress the point, D-Wave cited specific ‘practical’ uses by specific customers (more below) in financial services, pharmaceutical discovery, retail grocery, and automotive. It’s not entirely clear, and perhaps not important, how much these commercial applications leveraged D-Wave’s hybrid solver, which divides applications into portions that are best run on the quantum system and portions and best run on classical systems. It would be interesting to know how much specific speed-up and problem-solving was contributed by the quantum computed portions and how impactful that was to the overall solution.

It’s worth noting that D-Wave’s flurry of introductions today closely tracks the technology roadmap schedule it spelled out roughly a year and a half ago (see HPCwire coverage, D-Wave Previews Next-Gen Platform; Debuts Pegasus Topology; Targets 5000 Qubits).

Quantum analyst Bob Sorensen, SVP research, Hyperion Research, struck a cautiously optimistic note about the new system and D-Wave’s hybrid solver strategy.

“Such capabilities open up opportunities for increased performance on existing applications and exploration of new applications. In addition, the new hybrid scheme offers an innovative way to help D-Wave scale out their quantum capability across a classical computing architecture, especially when used with an accompanying hybrid solver,” said Sorensen. “I look forward to seeing some interesting benchmarks going as users begin to experiment with the hybrid solver and produce results that can be compared with pure classical counterparts. The ability to support one million variable optimization problems could open a frontier of new and innovative uses cases across a wide range of technology sectors.”

D-Wave’s Advantage chip

The is D-Wave’s fifth generation system and more than doubles the qubit count from its predecessor the 2000Q system. D-Wave’s qubit counts, of course, have long been much higher than gate-based quantum computers whose qubit counts are around 50 at the high-end currently. D-Wave’s quantum annealing approach to computation is fundamentally different (D-Wave explanation) and as such qubit comparisons with gate-based systems are not especially useful today, although some day they might be. Thom said, “Advantage was completely re-designed with problem size and increased problem complexity as the focus.”

He cited these improvements:

  • Processor Design & New topology. The higher qubit count and greater connectivity are important for embedding larger, denser problems with more constraints. These are the kinds of problems that are most relevant for business users, such as schedule optimization or transportation routing.
  • Superconducting Fabrication. Advantage has more than 1 million Josephson junctions, compared to 120,000 in the 2000Q. The new chip topology enables the embedding of larger problems with fewer physical qubits than the 2000Q topology. Advantage allows for 2.5x larger-sized problems to run directly on the quantum computer.

The new hybrid solver – the discrete quadratic model (DQM) solver – expands the range problems that can be addressed. “Instead of accepting problems with only binary variables (0 or 1), the DQM solver uses other variable sets (e.g., integers from 1 to 10, or red, yellow, and blue), expanding the types of problems that can run on the quantum computer,” said D-Wave. The DQM solver will be generally available on October 8.

Hybrid quantum-classical approaches have recently received more attention, as have pure digital emulation of traditional quantum algorithms. Toshiba, for example, offers a ‘digital annealing’ approach that it claims provides a speedup over classical algorithms/approaches on select problems. This trading of ideas between the quantum and classical computing camps is likely to continue. Hybrid solver approaches attempt to use both technologies.

Said Thom, “Simply put, quantum hybrid solver services are managed solvers that bring the best of classical and quantum resources together to solve customers’ business problems. By taking a hybrid quantum approach, customers get the benefits of both types of resources and this allows them to run problems with up to one million variables. The hybrid solvers are available in Leap, just as the Advantage QPU solver is now available in Leap today. A customer chooses the solver (whether hybrid or solely quantum) and runs their problem. This managed service is designed to allow business to build and run in-production, enterprise-scale applications.”

In today’s announcement D-Wave reported, “Coupled with the new topology the Advantage quantum processing unit (QPU), the hybrid solver outperformed or matched the best of 27 classical optimization solvers on 74% of the inputs that were tested in MQLib.”

The D-Wave Ocean software development kit includes tools for using the new Advantage topology and current leap users will have immediate access to the new system with no additional charges.

“Most customers will access Advantage through the Leap quantum cloud service. We will also expand our Leap footprint to Europe with a Leap system housed at the Julich Supercomputing Centre and in the US at ISI/Lockeed Martin/USC,” said Thom.

Back to Quantum Advantage. QA is basically defined as when a quantum computer can do something practical, sufficiently better than classical systems to warrant switching. ‘Sufficiently better’ is broad concept here including, for example, time-to-solution, power consumption, problem size tackled, etc. Companies tend to use variants if the quantum advantage term. D-Wave prefers customer advantage. Its strategy to leverage “hybrid solver solutions” is an important key to turning its current machine into a practical, production-ready tool.

D-Wave reports “customers and partners like Menten AI, Save-On Foods, Accenture, and Volkswagen are building and running hybrid quantum applications that create solutions with business value today.” If they are truly getting business value now – not R&D pilots – that’s a significant step forward. Here are a few details from the official D-Wave announcement:

  • “Protein design pioneer Menten AI has developed the first process using hybrid quantum programs to determine protein structure for de novo protein design with very encouraging results often outperforming classical solvers. Menten AI’s unique protein designs have been computationally validated, chemically synthesized, and are being advanced to live-virus testing against COVID-19.
  • “Western Canadian grocery retailer Save-On-Foods is using hybrid quantum algorithms to bring grocery optimization solutions to their business, with pilot tests underway in-store. The company has been able to reduce the time an important optimization task takes from 25 hours to a mere 2 minutes of calculations each week. Even more important than the reduction in time is the ability to optimize performance across and between a significant number of business parameters in a way that is challenging using traditional methods.
  • “Accenture, a leading global professional services company, is exploring quantum, quantum-inspired, and hybrid solutions to develop applications across industries. Accenture recently conducted a series of business experiments with a banking client to pilot quantum applications for currency arbitrage, credit scoring, and trading optimization, successfully mapping computationally challenging business problems to quantum formulations, enabling quantum readiness.
  • “Volkswagen, an early adopter of D-Wave’s annealing quantum computer, has expanded its quantum use cases with the hybrid solver service to build a paint shop scheduling application. The algorithm is designed to optimize the order in which cars are being painted. By using the hybrid solver service, the number of color switches will be reduced significantly, leading to performance improvements.”

D-Wave also supplied a few testimonial quotes.

“We are using quantum to design proteins today. Using hybrid quantum applications, we’re able to solve astronomical protein design problems that help us create new protein structures,” said Hans Melo, Co-founder and CEO, Menten AI. “We’ve seen extremely encouraging results with hybrid quantum procedures often finding better solutions than competing classical solvers for de novo protein design. This means we can create better proteins and ultimately enable new drug discoveries.”

“Embracing quantum computing is nothing new for Volkswagen. We were the first to run a hybrid quantum application in production in Lisbon last November with our bus routing application,” said Florian Neukart, Director of Advanced Technologies at Volkswagen Group of America. “At Volkswagen, we are focusing on building up a deep understanding of meaningful applications of quantum computing in a corporate context. The D-Wave system gives us the opportunity to address optimization tasks with a large number of variables at an impressive speed. With this we are taking a step further towards quantum applications that will be suitable for everyday business use.”

Quantum annealing computing, which was looked upon skeptically by many for years, has steadily carved out a place for itself, particularly in tackling optimization problems. It will be interesting to watch how much traction D-Wave’s new system and hybrid solver approach garners.

D-Wave announcement: https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/d-wave-announces-general-availability-of-first-quantum-computer-built-for-business/

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire