Nov. 13, 2023 — British quantum computer developer ORCA Computing has been selected by the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) to provide two ORCA Computing PT-1 quantum photonics systems. Funded under the Polish program, the systems will be installed at the PSNC’s high-performance computing data located in Poznań, Poland and will accelerate its work in quantum computing across a range of scientific and application areas including biology, chemistry and machine learning.

PSNC is internationally renowned for its IT infrastructure in science and information and communication technologies. It will integrate ORCA Computing’s PT-1 quantum systems into its high-performance infrastructure to help advance critical scientific research and industrial innovation.

Krzysztof Kurowski, PSNC Technical Director commented: “The availability of two on-premise quantum computers from ORCA Computing is a milestone moment for the PSNC and our vision of distributed quantum-classical computing. Having direct access to quantum computing technologies will accelerate our understanding of quantum computing and facilitate the development of novel quantum-classical applications.”

The ORCA PT is based on programmable Bosonic Sampling using telecom photon wavelengths. The computational results are highly complex statistics which can be used by applications in machine learning and optimisation. The system can be integrated with classical HPC solutions and is equipped with a python-based Software Development Kit (SDK). The SDK supports hybrid quantum/classical algorithms with QPUs and GPUs.

ORCA Computing’s technology uses single photons – single units of light – as its information carrier, which not only allows the system to be naturally adept at interfacing with networks but also creates a modular, flexible and upgradable system. ORCA’s use of proprietary multiplexing technology to manipulate the timing, frequency, and routing of single photons also allows it to achieve huge data densities to enable full-scale quantum computing with far fewer components.

PT-1 systems have been procured under EUROHPC-PL project and will be installed at the PSNC data center in November and December 2023. Two ORCA systems will be integrated with classical HPC systems and workloads in PSNC quantum computing and quantum communication environment. Under EuroHPC-PL project ORCA systems will be used as advanced quantum accelerators integrated with classical EuroHPC-PL environment. PSNC will integrate ORCA systems with other quantum computing technologies and environments. The center is working on software solutions and use cases for the ORCA systems environment

PSNC will have 1 of 6 EuroHPC quantum computers located in Europe

EuroQCS-Poland, based on trapped ions will be located at PSNC. It is a digital, gate-based quantum computer offering 20-plus physical qubits. The system will be integrated into the local high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure allowing for remote access via the colocated supercomputer connected to the PIONIER NREN.

PSNC leads the EuroQCS-Poland consortium, which consists of two additional Polish partners, the Center for Theoretical Physics Polish Academy of Science and Creotech Instruments S.A, and one academic partner from Latvia, the University of Latvia. EuroQCS-Poland will primarily target research, development and innovation and will be available to a wide range of European end-users, from the scientific community to industry and the public sector.

The upcoming quantum computer infrastructure will support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe, adding new capabilities to the European supercomputing infrastructure. The acquisition and integration of quantum computers into existing HPC data centers is EuroHPC’s first initiative in procuring quantum computing hardware in Europe.

PSNC has a wide range of provided services and applications . PSNC’s portfolio also includes projects such as:

• PRACE-LAB the primary goal of the project is to increase the competitiveness of the scientific community and the economy, with particular emphasis on SMEs, on international markets. Thanks to the implementation of development works, it is planned to improve the position of the Polish ICT sector by supporting and strengthening the development of innovative solutions. The direct goal of the project is to build a widely available HPC infrastructure consisting of high-performance computing servers, specialized processing units and flexible data management systems, and to provide scientific units and enterprises with services for research and development works and activities based on this infrastructure. commercial.
• PRACE-LAB2 the main goal of the project is to provide specialized computer architectures for applications related to the analysis of large volumes of data, applications using elements of artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as quantum computing simulations. In the area of economy, development work focuses on providing modern container solutions in the cloud and new services, including: HPCaaS (HPC as a Service). The primary goal is to improve the position of the Polish economy on European and global markets by supporting and strengthening the development of innovative solutions in cooperation with the private sector, with particular emphasis on SMEs, and the science sector.
• TEXTAROSSA which is aimed to achieve a broad impact on the (HPC) field both in pre-exascale and exascale scenarios. The TEXTAROSSA consortium will develop new hardware accelerators, innovative two-phase cooling equipment, advanced algorithms, methods and software products for traditional HPC domains as well as for emerging domains in High Performance Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) and High Performance Data Analytics (HPDA).
• HiDALGO2 which focuses on solutions for global challenges of climate change. The main goal of the project is to provide well-scalable solutions that could incorporate pre-exascale systems in existing and future HPC and AI infrastructures through synergy between modeling, data acquisition, simulation, data analysis and visualization. It is based on 5 main areas of environmental protection: air quality in urban areas, energy efficiency of buildings, renewable energy sources, wildfires and meteo-hydrological forecasts. HiDALGO2 also shares knowledge through trainings and workshops, filling the gap in specialized competences for the benefit of the EU community.

About PSNC & PIONIER

The Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) affiliated to the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences is an internationally renowned European Research Area hub focusing on IT infrastructure and plays the role of an important research and development center dealing with information and communication technologies. In its capacity of a development center, it serves as a key component of the global R&D community, pursuing mainly projects under subsequent Framework Programs of the European Union, as well as supporting R&D initiatives in cooperation with over a thousand partners from all over the world. PSNC has been consistently expanding its HPC computing infrastructure and its systems are listed in TOP500 and GREEN500 rankings. Over the recent years, the Center has been actively participating in addressing the quantum challenges faced by the contemporary IT sector.

PIONIER – Polish Optical Internet is the national broadband network, operated by PSNC, which is evolving towards terabit bandwidths, offering services to support digital innovation. It is an important element of open science, developed in the European Union as part of the EOSC initiative (European Open Science Cloud). The PIONIER network, using the GEANT network, realizes connectivity with European scientific networks (NRENs), as well as provides Polish scientific community with access to the global Internet. The total length of PIONIER fiber optic lines is 10,923 km, including 6,843 km in Poland and 4,080 km abroad.

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Source: PSNC