sakkmesterke – stock.adobe.com
Quantum computing may be years away, but Atos is preparing enterprises for the age of quantum with benchmarking to help them measure computational power.
According to Atos, 2020 has become an inflexion point for quantum computing. Real-life application areas have been identified which are unable to be solved in the classical world, but may be able to be solved in the quantum world.
Atos said that the new metric, called Q-Score, measures the actual performance of quantum processors when solving an optimisation problem.
Elie Girard, CEO of Atos, describes Q-Score as a universal metric for quantum computing, which aims to measure and assess the quantum computing performance of any type of qubit. Quantum computers require a huge amount of error correction. He said that the Q-Score metric will help companies improve their understanding of the type of problems where quantum computers perform well.
“The class of applications where Q-Score will have the largest impact is in optimisation,” he said. Unlike artificial intelligence (AI), where a data model may not be easy to explain, Girard believes humans can explain the problems a quantum computer is being used to solve.
“I think it’s a combinatorial problem. It’s not about humans being unable to understand what the machine does,” he said, adding that while humans can solve the problem, the way they do this cannot scale.
The travelling salesman problem is a well-known maths problem, deciding the optimal route a salesman has to take between each city, visiting each one once. For Girard, a human could easily draw an optimal route for the salesman to visit a handful of cities, but this becomes impossible as the number of cities increases.
A quantum computer can scale far more, which means it can figure out the optimal route between cities as more and more are added. “Your brain understands the problem, but when you increase the dimensions, the brain can’t calculate the outcomes,” he added.
Another seemingly simple example, said Girard, is where a university has to house 400 students but only have 100 rooms in its hall of residence, and there are 50 pairs of students who hate each other. According to Girard, the number of combinations of pairs of students who could be housed together is larger than the number of atoms in the universe.
Girard said that today’s quantum computers measure 15 on the Atos Q-Score, an improvement of 5 from last year’s quantum computers. By next year, he expects quantum computers will have a Q-Score of at least 20.
To reach so-called quantum supremacy – where a quantum computer can solve a problem not possible on a supercomputer – the Q-Score would need to be around 60. For Girard, this shows that while quantum computing is a number of years away, it is something business leaders need to build into their mid to long-term strategic planning.
“In spite of the fact that quantum technology may take years, we have identified applications which quantum computers can solve,” he said.
Atos is collaborating on the European project, NExt ApplicationS of Quantum Computing, which aims to boost near-term quantum applications and demonstrate quantum superiority. Projects include identifying molecules for carbon dioxide capture with Total, work with EDF on optimising the load of electrical cars on fast-charging stations, and redefining Monte-Carlo techniques for near-term quantum computers.
New technologies are widely-tipping to become a mainstay of datacentres in the future. Learn about new and emerging technologies that look set to shake-up the way datacentres are managed, monitored, powered and cooled as well.
The Open Group is teaming up with a United Nations agency on best practices, guides and standards to show resource-strapped …
SecOps tools offer many capabilities to address common threats enterprises face, including domain name services, network …
More CISOs are turning to security operations centers to centralize infosec processes, but experience shows SOC use cases will …
IBM rolled out a series of cloud-based services that improve hybrid cloud users’ cryptographic key protection, in part to …
Network teams can avoid signal coverage issues by performing different wireless site surveys as they evaluate new spaces, set up …
SD-WAN, SASE or some combination of the two — which approach will deliver the best and most secure network connectivity in your …
Celona 5G technology uses Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum to bring private mobile networking to the enterprise, …
One offers more control, while the other offers more flexible space. If you’re considering a colocation facility, how do you …
Colocation is not a silver-bullet solution for everyone. Discover the benefits and drawbacks that come with allowing a …
Finding the right server operating temperature can be tricky. ASHRAE standards provide guidance for all server classes and what …
Collibra CEO discusses the importance of data governance for enterprises and how to tie data governance to business terminology …
The enterprise edition of the MySQL database is being enhanced on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to enable users to run analytics …
The U.S. government has made data sets from many federal agencies available for public access to use and analyze. Check out some …
All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2000 – 2020, TechTarget
Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences
Do Not Sell My Personal Info
