Google says its quantum computer is more than 100 million times faster than a regular computer chip

Above: The D-Wave 2X quantum computer at NASA Ames Research Lab in Mountain View, California, on December 8.

Image Credit: Jordan Novet/VentureBeat

Google appears to be more confident about the technical capabilities of its D-Wave 2X quantum computer, which it operates alongside NASA at the U.S. space agency’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

D-Wave’s machines are the closest thing we have today to quantum computing, which works with quantum bits, or qubits — each of which can be zero or one or both — instead of more conventional bits. The superposition of these qubits enable machines to make great numbers of computations to simultaneously, making a quantum computer highly desirable for certain types of processes.

In two tests, the Google NASA Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab today announced that it has found the D-Wave machine to be considerably faster than simulated annealing — a simulation of quantum computation on a classical computer chip.

Google director of engineering Hartmut Neven went over the results of the tests in a blog post today:

We found that for problem instances involving nearly 1,000 binary variables, quantum annealing significantly outperforms its classical counterpart, simulated annealing. It is more than 108 times faster than simulated annealing running on a single core. We also compared the quantum hardware to another algorithm called Quantum Monte Carlo. This is a method designed to emulate the behavior of quantum systems, but it runs on conventional processors. While the scaling with size between these two methods is comparable, they are again separated by a large factor sometimes as high as 108.

Google has also published a paper on the findings.

If nothing else, this is a positive signal for venture-backed D-Wave, which has also sold quantum computers to Lockheed Martin and Los Alamos National Laboratory. At an event at NASA Ames today where reporters looked at the D-Wave machine, chief executive Vern Brownell sounded awfully pleased at the discovery. Without question, the number 100,000,000 is impressive. It’s certainly the kind of thing the startup can show when it attempts to woo IT buyers and show why its technology might well succeed in disrupting legacy chipmakers such as Intel.

But Google continues to work with NASA on quantum computing, and meanwhile Google also has its own quantum computing hardware lab. And in that initiative, Google is still in the early days.

“I would say building a quantum computer is really, really hard, so first of all, we’re just trying to get it to work and not worry about cost or size or whatever,” said John Martinis, the person leading up Google’s hardware program and a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Commercial applications of this technology might not happen overnight, but it’s possible that eventually they could lead to speed-ups for things like image recognition, which is in place inside of many Google services. But the tool could also come in handy for a traditional thing like cleaning up dirty data. Outside of Google, quantum speed-ups could translate into improvements for planning and scheduling and air traffic management, said David Bell, director of the Universities Space Research Association’s Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science, which also works on the D-Wave machine at NASA Ames.

ORIGINAL: Venture Beat

JORDAN NOVET 

DECEMBER 8, 2015

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How D-Wave Built Quantum Computing Hardware for the Next Generation

Photo: D-Wave Systems

One second is here and gone before most of us can think about it. But a delay of one second can seem like an eternity in a quantum computer capable of running calculations in millionths of a second. That's why engineers at D-Wave Systems worked hard to eliminate the one-second computing delay that existed in the D-Wave One—the first-generation version of what the company describes as the world's first commercial quantum computer.

Such lessons learned from operating D-Wave One helped shape the hardware design of D-Wave Two, a second-generation machine that has already been leased by customers such as Google, NASA, and Lockheed Martin. Such machines have not yet proven that they can definitely outperform classical computers in a way that would support D-Wave's particular approach to building quantum computers. But the hardware design philosophy behind D-Wave's quantum computing architecture points to how researchers could build increasingly more powerful quantum computers in the future.

"We have room for increasing the complexity of the D-Wave chip," says Jeremy Hilton, vice president of processor development at D-Wave Systems. "If we can fix the number of control lines per processor regardless of size, we can call it truly scalable quantum computing technology."

D-Wave recently explained the hardware design choices it made in going from D-Wave One to D-Wave Two in the June 2014 issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. Such details illustrate the engineering challenges that researchers still face in building a practical quantum computer capable of surpassing classical computers. (See IEEE Spectrum's overview of the D-Wave machines' performance from the December 2013 issue.)

  
Photo: D-Wave SystemsD-Wave's Year of Computing Dangerously

Quantum computing holds the promise of speedily solving tough problems that ordinary computers would take practically forever to crack. Unlike classical computing that represents information as bits of either a 1 or 0, quantum computers take advantage of quantum bits (qubits) that can exist as both a 1 and 0 at the same time, enabling them to perform many simultaneous calculations.

Classical computer hardware has relied upon silicon transistors that can switch between "on" and "off" to represent the 1 or 0 in digital information. By comparison, D-Wave's quantum computing hardware relies on metal loops of niobium that have tiny electrical currents running through them. A current running counterclockwise through the loop creates a tiny magnetic field pointing up, whereas a clockwise current leads to a magnetic field pointing down. Those two magnetic field states represent the equivalent of 1 or 0.

The niobium loops become superconductors when chilled to frigid temperatures of 20 millikelvin (-273 degrees C). At such low temperatures, the currents and magnetic fields can enter the strange quantum state known as "superposition" that allows them to represent both 1 and 0 states simultaneously. That allows D-Wave to use these "superconducting qubits" as the building blocks for making a quantum computing machine. Each loop also contains a number of Josephson junctions—two layers of superconductor separated by a thin insulating layer—that act as a framework of switches for routing magnetic pulses to the correct locations.

But a bunch of superconducting qubits and their connecting couplers—separate superconducting loops that allow qubits to exchange information—won't do any computing all by themselves. D-Wave initially thought it would rely on analog control lines that could apply a magnetic field to the superconducting qubits and control their quantum states in that manner. However, the company realized early on in development that it would need at least six or seven control lines per qubit, for a programmable computer. The dream of eventually building more powerful machines with thousands of qubits would become an "impossible engineering challenge" with such design requirements, Hilton says.

The solution came in the form of digital-to-analog flux converters (DAC)—each about the size of a human red blood cell at 10 micrometers in width— that act as control devices and sit directly on the quantum computer chip. Such devices can replace control lines by acting as a form of programmable magnetic memory that produces a static magnetic field to affect nearby qubits. D-Wave can reprogram the DACs digitally to change the "bias" of their magnetic fields, which in turn affects the quantum computing operations.

Most researchers have focused on building quantum computers using the traditional logic-gate model of computing. But D-Wave has focused on a more specialized approach known as "quantum annealing" —a method of tackling optimization problems. Solving optimization problems means finding the lowest "valley" that represents the best solution in a problem "landscape" with peaks and valleys. In practical terms, D-Wave starts a group of qubits in their lowest energy state and then gradually turns on interactions between the qubits, which encodes a quantum algorithm. When the qubits settle back down in their new lowest-energy state, D-Wave can read out the qubits to get the results.

Both the D-Wave One (128 qubits) and D-Wave Two (512 qubits) processors have DACs. But the circuitry setup of D-Wave One created some problems between the programming DAC phase and the quantum annealing operations phase. Specifically, the D-Wave One programming phase temporarily raised the temperature to as much as 500 millikelvin, which only dropped back down to the 20 millikelvin temperature necessary for quantum annealing after one second. That's a significant delay for a machine that can perform quantum annealing in just 20 microseconds (20 millionths of a second).

By simplifying the hardware architecture and adding some more control lines, D-Wave managed to largely eliminate the temperature rise. That in turn reduced the post-programming delay to about 10 milliseconds (10 thousandths of a second)— a "factor of 100 improvement achieved within one processor generation," Hilton says. D-Wave also managed to reduce the physical size of the DAC "footprint" by about 50 percent in D-Wave Two.

Building ever-larger arrays of qubits continues to challenge D-Wave's engineers. They must always be aware of how their hardware design—packed with many classical computing components—can affect the fragile quantum states and lead to errors or noise that overwhelms the quantum annealing operations.

"We were nervous about going down this path," Hilton says. "This architecture requires the qubits and the quantum devices to be intermingled with all these big classical objects. The threat you worry about is noise and impact of all this stuff hanging around the qubits. Traditional experiments in quantum computing have qubits in almost perfect isolation. But if you want quantum computing to be scalable, it will have to be immersed in a sea of computing complexity."

Still, D-Wave's current hardware architecture, code-named "Chimera," should be capable of building quantum computing machines of up to 8000 qubits, Hilton says. The company is also working on building a larger processor containing 1000 qubits.

"The architecture isn’t necessarily going to stay the same, because we're constantly learning about performance and other factors," Hilton says. "But each time we implement a generation, we try to give it some legs so we know it’s extendable."

ORIGINAL: IEEE Spectrum

By Jeremy Hsu
11 Jul 2014

In May, Google launched the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab with hardware from the Canadian quantum computing company D-Wave and technical expertise from NASA. It was an ambitious open research project aimed at exploring both the capabilities of quantum computer architecture and the mysteries of space exploration — but in the months since, they've stayed quiet about exactly what kind of work they've been doing there.

Operated at near-absolute-zero temperatures

Tomorrow, they're breaking the silence with a brief short film, set to debut at the Imagine Science Films Festival at Google New York. The film takes a look at various researchers working on the project, as well as the computer itself, which has to be operated at near-absolute-zero temperatures. Researchers hope the quantum architecture will eventually be used to optimize solutions across complex and interconnected sets of variables currently outside the capabilities of conventional computing. That could allow for new solutions in computational medicine or help NASA to construct a more comprehensive picture of the known universe. "We don't know what the best questions are to ask that computer," says NASA's Eleanor Rieffel in the video. "That's exactly what we're trying to understand."

Video provided by Google

We don't know what the best questions are to ask that computer."

Beyond the film, Google says it's made great leaps in recent experiments with the quantum chips, determining which algorithms work better in a quantum setup and providing further evidence that the D-Wave processor uses quantum entanglement, a behavior that links particles with no apparent physical connection between them. D-Wave has always claimed that its chips involved entanglement, but it had been difficult to conclusively demonstrate before now.

The first practical application has been on Google Glass, as engineers put the quantum chips to work on Glass's blink detector, helping it to better distinguish between intentional winks and involuntary blinks. For engineering reasons, the quantum processor can never be installed in Glass, but together with Google's conventional server centers, it can point the way to a better blink-detecting algorithm. That would allow the Glass processor to detect blinks with better accuracy and using significantly less power. If successful, it could be an important breakthrough for wink-triggered apps, which have struggled with the task so far.

Related Items nasa quantum computer d-wave quantum artificial intelligence lab Glass Google

ORIGINAL: The Verge

By Russell Brandom 

October 10, 2013

Google and NASA's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab

Quantum Computing  

Announced in May, Google and NASA's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab has now been introduced in a film takes a look at various researchers working on the project, as well as the computer itself. 

Google has produced a video introducing some of the people involved with the newly founded Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab. In May, in partnership with NASA, Google announced the Quantum A.I. Lab, a place where researchers from around the world can experiment with the incredible powers and possibilities of quantum computing. The facility, located in a NASA research center uses D-Wave's quantum computers. It is still early days, but Google thinks quantum computing can help solve some of the world's most challenging computer science problems. The company is particularly interested in how quantum computing can advance machine learning, which can then be applied to virtually any field: from finding the cure for a disease to understanding changes in our climate. 

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D-Wave's Geordie Rose, who is featured in the video commented on his blog, 

There are some great memes in the video. One of my favorites was raised by Sergio Boixo. He says at 4:25, '... [this machine] teaches us that we shouldn't be naive about the world, and we shouldn't think about the world as a simple machine. It forces us to consider more sophisticated notions of how the reality around us is actually shaped.'

In the video, Rose comments that the ultimate problem for quantum computers to work on are optimization problems. Speaking non-technically he also offers, 

How amazing is it that we, with our monkey heritage and monkey brains and monkey fingers, have lucked into a brain that allows us to ask legitimate questions about the nature of physical reality. That's so cool.

The film also features commentator Jason Silva ruminating on the possibilities of the technology. Silva also gets the poetic last words: 

It's that human risk to go forth into that unknown frontier, whether it's space exploration or quantum exploration. We do it because we must. We do it because that what it means to be human.

ORIGINAL: 33rdSquare

ORIGINAL: Google Quantum A.I. Lab Team

NASA And Google Partner To Work With A D-Wave Quantum Computer

NASA And Google Partner To Work With A D-Wave Quantum Computer
ORIGINAL: FORBES
Alex Knapp. Forbes Staff 

5/16/2013

D-Wave 512-Qubit Bonded Processor - Recent Generation (Credit: D-Wave)

D-Wave, the Canadian-based company that is the first to offer a commercial quantum computer, announced today that it’s sold its second $10 million D-Wave Two system. The contract is between the Universities Space Research Association and D-Wave. Google, USRA, and NASA will be collaborating on the use of the machine.

The system will be installed at a new lab, which will be located at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The computer is expected to go online in the third quarter of 2013. In addition to the sale, D-Wave will also be providing ongoing services such as maintenance. The company also expects to work closely with NASA, Google and USRA on the system.

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“I expect this to be a collaboration,” D-Wave’s U.S. President Bo Ewald told me. “Some of our scientists, mathematicians and computer scientists will be working at the Center.”


Prior to selecting the contract with D-Wave, the partnership first conducted a series of benchmarks on the 512-qubit D-Wave Two system, and found that its specifications were met or exceeded. The computer will be upgraded to a 2,048 qubit system once D-Wave has perfected that chip.

It’s important to note that the D-Wave system is not a general computer like your PC. Rather, it’s optimized to solve particular types of problem, and it likely uses quantum effects to solve those problems.

(Whether the D-Wave system uses a quantum process for its computation has been a matter of hot dispute in academia. However, recent research by a USC team working with Lockheed Martin LMT -0.05%‘s D-Wave system appears to show that there are, indeed, quantum effects happening with the system. Whether those quantum effects produce a “speedup” – that is, computation faster than classical methods – is still an open question.)

The laboratory at Ames will be using the D-Wave System for a number of applications, but they’ll be focused on improving algorithms that are used to improve machine learning and artificial intelligence. The lab will also investigate whether the system can optimize the search for planets outside of our solar system.

“We hope it helps researchers construct more efficient, effective models for everything from speech recognition, to web search, to protein folding,” Google said in a statement.

Under the terms of the agreement, 20% of the usage of the computer will be granted to University research. Research teams will compete to have their proposal use the machine selected. Once they’ve passed through that selection process, however, they’ll be granted use of the system free of charge.

For his part, Ewald is pretty excited about this step for the fledgling company. “For a company that’s just starting out, having Lockheed Martin as our first customer, then Google and NASA as number two? Well, that’s just a great way to start.”

Update: An earlier version of this article indicated that NASA had partnered to purchase the D-Wave System. A NASA spokesperson clarified that while NASA is partnered with Google and USRA to use the system, NASA is “not purchasing or leasing it”.