NEC Becomes First Global Reseller of D-Wave’s Leap Quantum Cloud Service

December 6, 2021

TOKYO & VANCOUVER, Dec. 6, 2021 — NEC Corporation, a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies, and D-Wave Systems Inc., the leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services, and the only provider building both annealing and gate model quantum computers, today announced that NEC has become the first global reseller of D-Wave’s Leap quantum cloud service.

In addition to reselling quantum cloud access through Leap, NEC will initially provide quantum consulting services in Japan, as well as professional services internationally, starting in Australia, then gradually expanding to new markets in the 38 countries where Leap is available today.

This joint go-to-market will extend NEC’s deep quantum experience with enterprises developing quantum computing use-cases and in-production applications, while furthering the rapidly expanding usage of D-Wave’s cloud-based quantum computing and quantum hybrid solver services.

As expectations for digital business increase, enterprises are looking to quantum computing to help solve problems that cannot efficiently be solved by classical computing within a practical timeframe or for economic reasons. In response, NEC began collaborating with D-Wave in 2020 (*1) and has utilized Leap to promote applied research in a variety of areas, including delivery planning, personnel management, manufacturing planning, and portfolio creation for a range of customers across diverse industries.

The features of Leap and support services provided by NEC include the following:

  • Quantum Cloud Access via Leap
    • Flexible cloud access, which is easy to use for anyone in the 38 countries where Leap is available today, and provides NEC customers with the only service delivering real-time access to quantum computers and hybrid quantum solvers.
    • NEC’s clients will have access to the Advantage™ quantum system, which leverages more than 5,000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity, in addition to an expanded quantum hybrid solver service that can run problems with up to one million variables. The combination of the computing power of Advantage and the scale to address real-world problems with the hybrid solver service in Leap enables businesses to run performant, real-time hybrid quantum applications.
    • NEC’s global customers can work directly with their account teams to benefit from cloud-based quantum computing via Leap.
    • Quantum annealing and ever more powerful quantum hybrid solvers are proving to be the best quantum systems for optimization problems, which make up a wide range of complex business problems.
    • An integrated developer environment (IDE) and Ocean software development kit (SDK) (*2) are part of Leap and can be coded utilizing Python, without any previous knowledge of quantum computing.
    • With flexible access, developers and businesses can get started today building in-production hybrid quantum applications. Flexible purchase plans allow developers and forward-thinking businesses to access the D-Wave quantum system in a way that works for them and their business.
    • Leap offers educational resources, demos, sample code, example use cases and a growing community of likeminded developers, all building quantum applications and interested in sharing their learnings, accelerating adoption.
  • Support Services in Japan
    • Supporting Q&A in Japanese on how to leverage Leap, gain real-time access to a quantum computer, and begin building hybrid quantum-classical applications.
  • Professional Services
    • NEC will also offer a phased, “get-started” program for customers built on the D-Wave Launch™ program. This program is a four-phased process designed to help enterprises go from problem discovery through production implementation. NEC will offer all elements of the D-Wave Launch program, including professional services support, access to the Leap quantum cloud service and training.
    • Customers of NEC will also be able to purchase seats in D-Wave’s training courses, teaching users how to use the quantum computers and quantum hybrid solvers to build business-scale, in-production quantum applications.

Going forward, NEC and D-Wave will develop and seek to expand the classical hybrid services in Leap, combining powerful simulated annealing systems like the NEC Vector Annealing Service on SX-Aurora TSUBASA (*3) into the hybrid workflows. This collaboration will add even more value to enterprises, helping them solve increasingly larger-scale optimization problems.

D-Wave is the only company in the world building both annealing and gate-based quantum computers. By offering both annealing and gate-model quantum computers, the company will impact the lifecycles of industry. In pharmaceuticals, annealing systems will ensure patient trial optimization, while gate-model systems will assist with drug discovery. In manufacturing, new meta materials will be designed with gate-model systems, while factory automation improvements will deliver those new products to market more efficiently using quantum annealing. The company’s mission is to bring quantum computing to business and society, today. Customers are already seeing business value. Applications include peptide design, employee scheduling, last-mile vehicle routing, paint shop scheduling, financial portfolio return optimization, farm-to-market food delivery, digital marketing, Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) materials development, financial risk reduction, marketing campaign optimization, shipping container logistics, ribonucleic acid (RNA) folding and clinical trial optimization.

NEC has a long history of work in quantum computing and, along with D-Wave, was one of the world’s first companies to successfully manufacture quantum bits, which are at the core of quantum computers. The company is also participating in projects led by the Japanese government and conducting research activities for the practical application of quantum computers. In 2020, NEC established a “Quantum Computing Promotion Office” to explore use cases for solving business issues at various companies by engineers who are familiar with quantum computing technologies and AI.

NEC will provide these new services to various customers in fields such as finance, manufacturing, logistics and academia, and will promote the use of quantum computing and contribute to the resolution of social issues.

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of “Orchestrating a brighter world.” NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com.

About D-Wave Systems Inc.

D-Wave is the leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software and services and is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers and the only company developing both annealing quantum computers and gate-model quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing for business and society, today. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, scheduling, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Wave’s systems are being used by some of the world’s most advanced organizations, including NEC, Volkswagen, DENSO, Lockheed Martin, USC, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. With headquarters near Vancouver, Canada, D-Wave’s US operations are based in Palo Alto, CA. D-Wave has a blue-chip investor base including PSP Investments, Goldman Sachs, BDC Capital, NEC Corp., Aegis Group Partners, and In-Q-Tel. For more information, visit: www.dwavesys.com.

(*1) NEC and D-Wave Begin Joint Quantum Product Development, Marketing and Sales

https://www.nec.com/en/press/202006/global_20200618_01.html

(*2) Ocean SDK

An SDK (software development kit) that contains a set of open source Python tools that are available on GitHub. Ocean SDK has an API for using a QPU (Quantum Processing Unit), enabling customers to smoothly build a system that performs quantum computing via an application.

(*3) NEC launches simulated annealing service utilizing vector supercomputers

https://www.nec.com/en/press/202109/global_20210901_01.html


Source: NEC, D-Wave

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!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

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

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire