Quantum Systems Learn Joint Computing

February 5, 2021

Feb. 5, 2021 — Today’s quantum computers contain up to several dozen memory and processing units, the so-called qubits. Severin Daiss, Stefan Langenfeld, and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have successfully interconnected two such qubits located in different labs to a distributed quantum computer by linking the qubits with a 60-meter-long optical fiber. Over such a distance they realized a quantum-logic gate—the basic building block of a quantum computer. It makes the system the worldwide first prototype of a distributed quantum computer.

The two qubit modules (red atom between two blue mirrors) that have been interconnected to implement a basic quantum computation (depicted as light blue symbol) over a distance of 60 meters. The modules reside in different laboratories of the same building and are connected by an optical fiber. The computation operation is mediated by a single photon (flying red sphere) that interacts successively with the two modules. Credit: Stephan Welte/Severin Daiss, MPQ

The limitations of previous qubit architectures

Quantum computers are considerably different from traditional “binary” computers: Future realizations of them are expected to easily perform specific calculations for which traditional computers would take months or even years—for example in the field of data encryption and decryption. While the performance of binary computers results from large memories and fast computing cycles, the success of the quantum computer rests on the fact that one single memory unit—a quantum bit, also called “qubit”—can contain superpositions of different possible values at the same time. Therefore, a quantum computer does not only calculate one result at a time, but instead many possible results in parallel. The more qubits there are interconnected in a quantum computer; the more complex calculations it can perform.

The basic computing operations of a quantum computer are quantum-logic gates between two qubits. Such an operation changes—depending on the initial state of the qubits—their quantum mechanical states. For a quantum computer to be superior to a normal computer for various calculations, it would have to reliably interconnect many dozens, or even thousands of qubits for equally thousands of quantum operations. Despite great successes, all current laboratories are still struggling to build such a large and reliable quantum computer, since every additionally required qubit makes it much harder to build a quantum computer in just one single set-up. The qubits are implemented, for instance, with single atoms, superconductive elements, or light particles, all of which need to be isolated perfectly from each other and the environment. The more qubits are arranged next to one another, the harder it is to both isolate and control them from outside at the same time.

Data line and processing unit combined

One way to overcome the technical difficulties in the construction of quantum computers is presented in a new study in the journal Science by Severin Daiss, Stefan Langenfeld and colleagues from the research group of Gerhard Rempe at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching. In this work supported by the Institute of Photonic Sciences (Castelldefels, Spain), the team succeeded in connecting two qubit modules across a 60-meter distance in such a way that they effectively form a basic quantum computer with two qubits. “Across this distance, we perform a quantum computing operation between two independent qubit setups in different laboratories,” Daiss emphasizes. This enables the possibility to merge smaller quantum computers to a joint processing unit.

Simply coupling distant qubits to generate entanglement between them has been achieved in the past, but now, the connection can additionally be used for quantum computations. For this purpose, the researchers employed modules consisting of a single atom as a  that is positioned amidst two mirrors. Between these modules, they send one single light quanta, a photon, that is transported in the optical fiber. This photon is then entangled with the quantum states of the qubits in the different modules. Subsequently, the state of one of the qubits is changed according to the measured state of the “ancilla photon,” realizing a quantum mechanical CNOT-operation with a fidelity of 80 percent. A next step would be to connect more than two modules and to host more qubits in the individual modules.

Higher performance quantum computers through distributed computing

Team leader and institute director Gerhard Rempe believes the result will allow to further advance the technology: “Our scheme opens up a new development path for distributed quantum computing.” It could enable, for instance, to build a distributed quantum computer consisting of many modules with few qubits that are interconnected with the newly introduced method. This approach could circumvent the limitation of existing quantum computers to integrate more qubits into a single setup and could therefore allow more powerful systems.


Source: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik

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!

Anders Dam Jensen on HPC Sovereignty, Sustainability, and JU Progress

April 23, 2024

The recent 2024 EuroHPC Summit meeting took place in Antwerp, with attendance substantially up since 2023 to 750 participants. HPCwire asked Intersect360 Research senior analyst Steve Conway, who closely tracks HPC, AI, Read more…

AI Saves the Planet this Earth Day

April 22, 2024

Earth Day was originally conceived as a day of reflection. Our planet’s life-sustaining properties are unlike any other celestial body that we’ve observed, and this day of contemplation is meant to provide all of us Read more…

Intel Announces Hala Point – World’s Largest Neuromorphic System for Sustainable AI

April 22, 2024

As we find ourselves on the brink of a technological revolution, the need for efficient and sustainable computing solutions has never been more critical.  A computer system that can mimic the way humans process and s Read more…

Empowering High-Performance Computing for Artificial Intelligence

April 19, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents some of the most challenging demands in information technology, especially concerning computing power and data movement. As a result of these challenges, high-performance computing Read more…

Kathy Yelick on Post-Exascale Challenges

April 18, 2024

With the exascale era underway, the HPC community is already turning its attention to zettascale computing, the next of the 1,000-fold performance leaps that have occurred about once a decade. With this in mind, the ISC Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Texas Two Step

April 18, 2024

Texas Tech University. Their middle name is ‘tech’, so it’s no surprise that they’ve been fielding not one, but two teams in the last three Winter Classic cluster competitions. Their teams, dubbed Matador and Red Read more…

Anders Dam Jensen on HPC Sovereignty, Sustainability, and JU Progress

April 23, 2024

The recent 2024 EuroHPC Summit meeting took place in Antwerp, with attendance substantially up since 2023 to 750 participants. HPCwire asked Intersect360 Resear Read more…

AI Saves the Planet this Earth Day

April 22, 2024

Earth Day was originally conceived as a day of reflection. Our planet’s life-sustaining properties are unlike any other celestial body that we’ve observed, Read more…

Kathy Yelick on Post-Exascale Challenges

April 18, 2024

With the exascale era underway, the HPC community is already turning its attention to zettascale computing, the next of the 1,000-fold performance leaps that ha Read more…

Software Specialist Horizon Quantum to Build First-of-a-Kind Hardware Testbed

April 18, 2024

Horizon Quantum Computing, a Singapore-based quantum software start-up, announced today it would build its own testbed of quantum computers, starting with use o Read more…

MLCommons Launches New AI Safety Benchmark Initiative

April 16, 2024

MLCommons, organizer of the popular MLPerf benchmarking exercises (training and inference), is starting a new effort to benchmark AI Safety, one of the most pre Read more…

Exciting Updates From Stanford HAI’s Seventh Annual AI Index Report

April 15, 2024

As the AI revolution marches on, it is vital to continually reassess how this technology is reshaping our world. To that end, researchers at Stanford’s Instit Read more…

Intel’s Vision Advantage: Chips Are Available Off-the-Shelf

April 11, 2024

The chip market is facing a crisis: chip development is now concentrated in the hands of the few. A confluence of events this week reminded us how few chips Read more…

The VC View: Quantonation’s Deep Dive into Funding Quantum Start-ups

April 11, 2024

Yesterday Quantonation — which promotes itself as a one-of-a-kind venture capital (VC) company specializing in quantum science and deep physics  — announce 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

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…

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…

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…

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…

Eyes on the Quantum Prize – D-Wave Says its Time is Now

January 30, 2024

Early quantum computing pioneer D-Wave again asserted – that at least for D-Wave – the commercial quantum era has begun. Speaking at its first in-person Ana Read more…

GenAI Having Major Impact on Data Culture, Survey Says

February 21, 2024

While 2023 was the year of GenAI, the adoption rates for GenAI did not match expectations. Most organizations are continuing to invest in GenAI but are yet to Read more…

The GenAI Datacenter Squeeze Is Here

February 1, 2024

The immediate effect of the GenAI GPU Squeeze was to reduce availability, either direct purchase or cloud access, increase cost, and push demand through the roof. A secondary issue has been developing over the last several years. Even though your organization secured several racks... Read more…

Intel’s Xeon General Manager Talks about Server Chips 

January 2, 2024

Intel is talking data-center growth and is done digging graves for its dead enterprise products, including GPUs, storage, and networking products, which fell to Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire