IBM, this source, quantum spin three major manufacturers of quantum products compared
At the G-7 Summit in Japan, IBM announced a 10-year, $100 million program with the University of Tokyo and the University of Chicago to develop a quantum-centric supercomputer powered by 100,000 quantum bits.
Quantum-centric supercomputers represent a new and, until now, unrealized era of high-performance computing. A system with 100,000 quantum bits would be the foundation for solving some of the world's most pressing problems that even today's most advanced supercomputers may never be able to solve.
For example, such a powerful quantum system could open up a whole new understanding of the dynamics of chemical reactions and molecular processes; in turn, this could enable researchers to help study climate change by simulating better ways to capture carbon; discover materials for making batteries for electric cars and energy grids that are cleaner and more sustainable; and discover more efficient and energy-saving fertilizers.
To usher in this powerful new paradigm, and through collaboration with the University of Chicago, the University of Tokyo and IBM's broader global ecosystem, IBM will work over the next decade to advance the technology underlying this system and to design and build the necessary components at scale.
IBM Quantum System Two, a system designed to be modular and flexible, combines multiple processors into a single system with communication links. This system is targeted to be deployed by the end of 2023 and will be the building block for a quantum-centric supercomputer.
Visual rendering of IBM Quantum's quantum-centric 100,000-quantum-bit supercomputer, expected to be deployed in 2033.
Looking ahead, IBM intends to expand these partnerships: to include Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory - both of which are members of the Chicago Quantum Exchange and home to two respective Department of Energy quantum centers. Importantly, both labs offer capabilities and expertise that can facilitate the delivery of quantum-centric supercomputer technology.
In response, Arvind Krishna, chairman and CEO of IBM, said, "IBM has been at the forefront of introducing the world to quantum technology for the past several years. We have made significant progress along our roadmap and mission to build useful quantum technologies globally, so much so that we can now, with our partners, really begin to explore and develop a new class of quantum-based supercomputing."
IBM's plans for this quantum-centric supercomputer are expected to address all levels of the computing stack and include the convergence of the fields of quantum computing and quantum communications, as well as the seamless integration of quantum and classical workflows through a hybrid cloud.
This heavyweight strategy will undoubtedly push IBM quantum to a whole new level.
According to the technology roadmap released publicly earlier, IBM is mainly developing superconducting quantum computers - which coincides with the technology line of Hongyuan Quantum and Quantum Spin Technology, which have publicly released several products in China, so we can try to compare and evaluate the performance of these products, suggest improvements and learning suggestions.
It is worth mentioning that this comparison itself does not mean that one is better than the other, but rather to avoid the inefficiency and information lag caused by confusion. This article will mainly compare publicly available products in terms of technical specifications, with the aim of promoting subsequent technological progress through healthy competition. In fact, there are many other factors that determine the commercial value of a product, so if there are any infringement/misunderstanding issues, please contact us to revise.
1) Superconducting Quantum Computing Cloud
Origin Quantum (https://qcloud.originqc.com.cn/zh/computerServies/servies)
With its OriginQ Cloud, Native Quantum offers a 6-qubit device with an average relaxation time of at least 10 μs: this means that all computations must be completed in about 10 millionths of a second. Currently, no Western company claims a relaxation time below 20 μs, which means that OriginQ Cloud has at least twice the time to perform the calculations of Western superconducting quantum computers. IBM Quantum's worst performing devices outlive all of its Western competitors, all of which outlive Origin's qubit chips: the smallest devices typically have 5 quantum bits, and Thus the Quark is larger than some of its Western counterparts.
Quantum Spin Technology claims to have a 20-qubit device with relaxation times roughly in the 10-100 μs range, but it only publicly offers an 8-qubit device with a wide range of relaxation times. At a given time, some of the quantum bits on the chip may have relaxation times comparable to some of the quantum bits in IBM Quantum, while other quantum bits on the same chip may have the same relaxation times as the native quantum.
The 8-qubit device is also limited by the linear topology, which means that all quantum bits can only be connected to at most two other quantum bits; the quantum bits at each end can only be connected to one other quantum bit. As a result, most algorithms running on such 8-quantum-bit devices will require additional operations to move the quantum states, and these operations greatly increase the error rate during computation.
Digital simulation of projective non-Abelian anyons with 68 superconducting qubits, just revised in a second version of the paper on the arXiv website on May 11 .
Of course, several universities in China have also collaborated on a paper claiming that the superconducting quantum computer has 68 quantum bits and an average relaxation time of 109.8 μs - both figures are far ahead.
Because IBM's 433-bit Osprey chip just came out in Exploratory status, IBM Quantum still has several 127-bit devices available that we can compare to the 68 bits we just saw. IBM Quantum currently has a total of 22 publicly available superconducting quantum computers, nine of which are available for free. Two of these 127-qubit devices, ibm_sherbrooke and ibm_kyiv, have relaxation times of about 300 μs.
Ibmq_manila
ibm_peekskil
One of IBM Quantum's devices, ibmq_manila, has only 5 quantum bits and its average relaxation time is 198.17 μs; now, the world has unlimited free access to IBM Quantum devices. ibm_peekskill, with 27 bits, has the highest average relaxation time of 320.75μs.
These are just IBM's earlier releases; its 127-bit ibm_sherbrooke has an average relaxation time of 293.68μs. This means that IBM Quantum is able to single-handedly have more, high-quality quantum bits in a single superconducting quantum computer.
2) Portal
All of the above companies have one thing in common: they all have portals featuring drag-and-drop circuit builders. Next, let's take a superficial look at these portals.
Native Quantum's drag-and-drop circuit builder dominates the screen; the site is navigated on the left and surrounded by visual content.
Quantum Spin Technology has moved the QASM editor to the right side of the screen.
IBM Quantum has the first publicly available quantum computing cloud, and little has changed since the beginning. The drag-and-drop circuit builder still takes center stage, the navigation is still on the left, the visualization is still below, and there is still a QASM editor on the side.
3) Software Development Kit
IBM Quantum is perhaps best known for its Qiskit library, which is claimed to be the most popular quantum computing library in the world. Of course, domestic companies have also released their own software development kits, so let's take a brief look at them.
OriginQ Cloud by Native Quantum includes a library (lab) with 12 Jupyter notebooks, but no folders that might hide additional Jupyter notebooks. We did not see any textbook algorithms or sample applications, only tutorials on how to use QPanda.
SpinQit by Quantum Spin Technologies consists of 14 tutorials on GitHub, which include algorithms and applications. The lack of introductory tutorials here is surprising considering the company's focus on the education space.
IBM Qiskit is known for containing everything: introductory tutorials, textbook algorithms, and sample applications. In addition, it is not limited to IBM hardware; because it is open source, it can be integrated with competitors' hardware.
A look at GitHub shows how many contributors Qiskit has, which makes it the largest publicly available quantum computing library: if a user finds something they like in another library, Qiskit most likely has it too.
Qiskit is an open source library with the largest user base in the quantum community. This user base with access to the code makes Qiskit a larger library than the companies that pay their employees to develop the SDK. It is therefore not surprising that Qiskit still manages to stay at the top of the field.
According to publicly available information, Chinese institutions spend as much on quantum-related research as most countries in the world combined; this has even been a huge motivation for all other countries to move forward and not fall behind. However, based on known data, there is no evidence that China is leading in quantum computing software, hardware and commerce.
As you can see, the gap with IBM is not just a hardware gap in quantum bits and relaxation time, but an all-around gap from strategic layout, software design, to user services. Of course, IBM, as a business giant with more than 110 years of experience, is leading the global technology with every breakthrough and move. The view of PhotonBox is that we should first of all face up to the gap between our superconducting quantum computer and IBM, but there is no need to have negative emotions, we should believe in the national layout and scientists' efforts.
Finally, we appeal that quantum computers are not only for researchers, but also need all-round support from other links, from hardware technology, quantum measurement and control system, software development are in urgent need of breakthrough, we hope that all industries will join together to promote the progress of quantum computing in China.
Reference links:
[1] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-launches-100-million-partnership-with-global-universities-to-develop-novel- technologies-towards-a-100-000-qubit-quantum-centric-supercomputer-301829976.html
[2] https://quantumcomputingreport.com/assessment-of-quantum-computing-hardware-portals-and-software-development-kits-publicly- available-in-china/
